Against All Odds
by phoenix9648
Summary: A hockey game one night goes wrong and leaves Derek in a horrific, life-changing state. Who will stick by his side? Will the one who always was his enemy become his strongest ally? Dasey.
1. Prologue

Hi guys! This idea is based off of one of my original stories, but I thought I'd try it out with Dasey. I guess in a way it could be considered AU? Seeing as it didnt actually happen in the show. But its fiction, and I can contort it to whatever I like ;)

Anyways, my original was tough to write. I have the rating at T right now, but let me know if I should move it up to M at any point. I'm always sort of caught between. I tend to swear a bunch, especially in angsty fics, but I feel its appropriate and the rest of it doesnt seem M rating so I sort of settle for a mature T :)

Regardless, please let me know whateverrr you're thinking by reviewing, PMing, favoriting, alerting and what not.

I will warn you Dasey lovers, yes it is of course a Dasey. I really cant write anything else. But it is going to be a lot more of them building as friends first, and about Derek moving on from what happened to him and adjusting to a new life. It will be fun and lighthearted at times, depressing and painful at others. I wanted this story to have real meaning behind it I guess.

Without further ado, here it is. Apologies to Derek (sorry!) for putting him through this. But I tend to put Casey through EVERYTHING, so I compensated by giving him a whole lot.

PS This is only the prologue. The rest of the chapters will be much longer :)

**I DO NOT OWN LIFE WITH DEREK!**

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**PROLOGUE**

Derek Venturi weaved around the other players like they were nothing but a pothole in a city street. They were merely a small obstacle he didn't have any problem bypassing. He was bringing his all to tonight's game. It was the first of the season. He had missed the brisk smell of cool air, the crisp scrape of skates slicing through ice, the adrenaline pumping in his veins, the buzzer ringing in his ears after the satisfying swish of a puck spinning into the goal. Games were where he really came alive. He felt on top of the world, more so than usual at least.

It helped a bit that the whole family had come to this game, even Casey. They all were bundled up about halfway up the stands. Derek could hear his Dad being overly public over the fact that he was cheering for the star player and captain of the team who also was the lead scorer of the night. Casey was watching between reading her newest romantic novel, not enjoying the violence of the game. Considering it was only the first of the season, the other team were pretty brutal tonight. They had never played against them but this season they were broadening their competition, which meant new cities high school teams.

Sam was already benched with a busted arm, a rogue puck that managed to badly bruise through all the padding he was wearing as goalie. He had ice and a sling and was cheering on his fellow team-mates, looking only disgruntled at the fact that he couldn't be out there with them.

Casey even looked up when Derek stole the puck from the other team and stormed through the others across the rink. He couldn't help the grin crossing his face. He could feel a game-shattering goal coming on. The blood was pulsing through his veins at an unstoppable force and he swung his stick back before a large crash knocked him off his feet and into the boards.

White hot pain burned across his back, along with a disgusting crunch, before he fell lifeless on the ice, unable to move.

Whistles blew, people screamed, but the only voice he seemed to hear in all the chaos was Casey's screech of his name, pure fear choking the sound.

She was at his side almost instantly. How she burst through half a stadium of freaking out people and across the ice in her boots before his team or ref could check if he was alright, he would never understand. But she was crying, her tears falling through the holes in his helmet.

"Derek, are you okay? What hurts?" she begged, clutching his padded arm, her eyes bigger than he'd ever seen them.

His eyes filled with tears. The pain was unbearable but the sinking realization of what had happened to him was what choked his words.

"Case…I can't feel my legs."


	2. Vulnerability

As I'm sure you've guessed by now, this story is going to be a sad one. But it will get better! This part is the early days of Derek dealing with his new reality, coping with his new limitations, and it was difficult to write for me. Paralysis is my greatest fear, so this story tugs particularly hard at my heartstrings. I just can't imagine.

Luckily I have never experienced it. And I do not know anyone close to me that is, so forgive me if my facts are not correct. This is more for the chapter following, but I am merely trying to make it as realistic as possible while still placing the options out there for me to bend and twist things my way, so that my story goes the way I want. Just as a warning. But flames are openly welcomed, I'm trying to improve as a writer here.

ANYWAYS This chapter. A little OOC. Im bad for that huh? Oh well. BUT Dasey fluff, cause its the best kind! I know the touching is over the top but I wrote this during my Just Like Heaven story and had to overcompensate since JLH couldnt have any type of touching and I realized how heavily I rely on it for building relationships.

Also this is set in high school. Not sure exactly where, I figure about where Just Like Heaven is. For all those who havent read that one, its post-Max and post-Kendra, pre-Truman and pre-Sally. K? :)

Finally Ive never named chapters in my life. Before fanfic, I never even separated my stories directly by chapters, I just kinda assumed where they broke apart. But anyways, forgive me if the titles are either lame, make the chapter predictable, or not as fitting as something else might be. Im working on it. Any advice or constructive criticism welcomed :)

**I DO NOT OWN LIFE WITH DEREK!**

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**VULNERABILITY**

Paraplegia. Paraplegia. Paraplegia.

It didn't matter how many times he said it, he still couldn't believe it. The Great Derek Venturi was paralyzed from the waist down. He could no longer, and never again, move his legs, or the lower half of his body. He couldn't walk. He couldn't go to the bathroom without assistance. He could never play hockey again. Or give Marti a piggy back. Or chase Edwin around the house and up the stairs. Hell he couldn't even get up the stairs without a lift. He couldn't tackle Casey to the ground in an epic battle for the remote. He couldn't go swimming with friends or bowling (like he used to) or even take an escalator at the mall. He'd be the friend who'd be in the way in the movie theatre, parked in the aisle. He'd take extra long to get in and out of the car and other places. He'd be that guy who made others on the bus miss their next one, because it took so much extra time to strap him in. He'd spend his life in a chair. He wouldn't get to coach his son's hockey team like he planned to in the future.

Fuck, he couldn't even _have _a son. He sure as hell couldn't make love to someone without his lower half functioning. Derek stared at the ceiling, the all too familiar lump forming in this throat as it had many times in the past few weeks.

He was going through rehabilitation at the moment, learning how to use his chair, exploring his limits, adjusting to his new condition. He had to see a therapist too to see how he was coping. He just wanted out. But he couldn't face his friends, his family, the reality of when he went back to his life, everything would be different. And it could never go back to the way it was. Ever.

His whole life plan, even the simplest things, had been crushed, ruined, smashed to smithereens, broken into fragments of a hopeful future that could no longer exist. He couldn't play in the Olympics. He couldn't walk the Wall of China, or swim in the Mediterranean waters, or pick up hot Mexican girls. Hell, would he even be able to have a healthy relationship with a girl ever? Would anyone even look at him when he was in a wheelchair?

These thoughts infected his thoughts for the weeks he spent in rehab. The drive home from there was silent. George left him alone mostly, making small talk when he felt necessary, but Derek didn't bite so it petered out rather quickly.

When they arrived at number 271 on their street, Derek was surprised to see the ramp attached to the porch. Now the whole world would know of his condition. For some reason, this made Derek angry. Why was it anyone's business what was wrong with him? Why did they need to know?

George unbuckled his chair from its ties in the back of the family van. Derek realized that they couldn't all travel in one car anymore since they had to remove a couple seats to fit him in. Could this get any worse?

Derek remained silent as he wheeled himself up the ramp to their house. He had to stretch to reach the doorknob and he exhaled heavily, trying to release his frustration, before he headed inside the house.

Edwin and Lizzie looked up from the TV and their faces lit up seeing his return.

"Derek!" his little brother called, running over and hesitating, not sure whether hugging him would get him pulverised or not.

Derek tried not to think about how much less intimidating he was now that Edwin could easily outrun him. He ruffled his hair, not wanting to hurt him by pulling him over the armrest for a hug. "Hey bro." he said quietly, forcing a smile.

"Welcome home, Derek." Lizzie said, smiling brightly, and put an arm around his shoulders, giving him a gentle squeeze before moving out of the way so Marti could pounce on him.

"Smerek! You're home!" she squealed, collapsing on his lap and hugging him tightly.

It was about the only time he was slightly grateful he had no feeling in his legs, as she was getting heavier each year she grew up.

"I missed you, Smarti." Derek said, smiling more easily now, grateful that his little sister was still the same charming little girl she always had been and hadn't changed around him.

After releasing his little sister, Derek realized that Casey was nowhere to be seen. Nora came out from the kitchen and hugged him tightly, albeit slightly awkwardly since she had to manoeuvre around the chair. But Derek was grateful; at least she didn't try to treat him strangely.

"So dinner is in a couple of hours. Um, we set up the lift, Derek, if you want to put your stuff in your room at all." she added tenderly.

He nodded, taking a proper look around the room first. He hadn't noticed when he first came in, but it was eerily clean. They removed the rug, had new storage boxes for the regular toys and misshapen items that usually littered the floor, and there was a small ramp attached so he could get up the first few stairs to get to the wall lift unit. He knew all the changes were for his benefit, but he still felt that unexplainable anger creep up again.

This was _his_ problem. _His_ condition. Why did the family have to make so many sacrifices for him? He couldn't even imagine the costs. Sure there's insurance but to cover constant physio appointments, a few weeks at rehab, a wheelchair, all the adjustments to the house and the time consuming fact of transporting him anywhere…well Derek didn't want to think about it anymore.

George excitedly showed him how to use the lift. He was obviously quite proud of it, although admitted it wasn't him who installed it as he didn't want to risk Derek's safety. When Derek finally reached the top of the stairs and wheeled off the platform, he let out a low growl of frustration as he attempted to fold it back up to save the space. Add that to another sacrifice to the family, installing the thing and having to deal with it being in the way all the time.

He wheeled into his room, getting caught on the mess of his floor and unable to proceed. He let his head meet his hands and let out a small sob. How had this happened?

He hadn't known that Casey chose that moment to come out of her bedroom, her eyes wide at seeing him not only home, but crying in his room.

She hesitated, unsure whether to comfort him like she wanted to, or leave him be. Not only were they not really friends but Derek didn't show weakness to anyone, especially her. She had never seen him cry in her life, but she was sure half the family, if not all, hadn't either. She didn't want to intrude on such a private, personal moment, especially when he was in such a vulnerable state. But she couldn't just leave him.

He wheeled backwards, trying to untangle himself from the clothes his wheels got caught in. It took Casey by surprise and when he nudged her foot with the back of the wheel, she let out a small yelp. Derek twisted to look over his shoulder, cheeks still wet, but a look of horror at what he'd done and a small childlike fear staring back at her.

"Sorry, didn't know you were there. Finally came to see me?" he asked, trying to put the usual sneer in his voice but just wasn't into it this time.

"Yeah, I just wanted to see how you're doing." Casey said, automatically crouching down and untangling his clothes from the chair.

"Fucking awesome." he snapped but followed with a nod of thanks for helping him out, a look of shame already crossing his face at his outburst. He knew it wasn't Casey's fault what happened to him. But everyone else was avoiding speaking about it like it was a disease and that if they brought it up, he'd go ballistic or something. They were all trying to act naturally, but it felt so fake that he couldn't take it.

"I'm…I'm sorry, Casey. I didn't mean to snap at you. This thing…my new life…it's fucking hell and I can't think straight. It's all still sinking in." he confessed, not looking at her.

She nodded, sweeping the clothes out of his way so he could make it to his bed. She sat on the edge while he wheeled over to sit in front of her. He didn't say anything about her being on his bed, although before there would have been a lot of yelling and freaking out involved.

"Derek… I can't imagine what you're going through. But you're The Great Derek Venturi! Triple D! You can get through this. You can beat this. Remember what the doctors said?" she added hopefully.

Derek nodded, remembering. Those first days he spent in the hospital were hard to remember. His grief had been overpowering and left him with little cognition. But the doctor told him he had only badly fractured his spine, and that the spinal cord was merely compressed, not severed, so there was a very, very, very, very, very (times a million more verys) small chance that he could get function back if the nerve swelling diminished. But it wasn't like when your ankle swelled, where you put on an icepack for a bit and you're soon back on your feet. Nerve swelling almost always spelled permanent with a capital P. But it could be worse. He could've been quadriplegic and only been able to move his head.

"Case… I don't even know who I am anymore." he admitted, refusing to look her in the eyes when he was being so weak. He knew he had a good excuse and all but this was Casey. CASEY. You know, that step-sister, enemy from the womb, Klutzilla-keener-psycho-drama-queen? Why was he having this personal conversation with her?

When he was at rehab, he didn't really talk to anyone but the therapist, and he couldn't really talk to them either. He had never been one to spill his feelings, let alone to a complete stranger. He had to give them something so he summarized, didn't get deeply involved, but told them what they wanted to hear, even if it wasn't true.

"D, you've always been so independent, and so well liked. That has nothing to do with whether or not your legs work. People adore your confidence, your charm, your natural charisma, your quick wit. They admire you. That won't change."

Derek sighed. "The guys admire my ability to pick up girls. That won't be happening anymore, that's for sure."

Casey scoffed. "Well at least now you can date someone with half a brain cell. Any girl who is going to not give you a chance because of your physical capabilities is a complete idiot who-"

"Actually might want to experience sex and children in later life." he finished for her. "Case, I can't give that to someone. I'd never expect somebody to give up all of their dreams for me. Are you saying _you_ would give that up? Your white-picket-fence-kids-playing-in-the-backyard-loving-husband dream?"

"You could still show me you love me, Derek; sex does not equal love. I've survived this long without needing sex, I'm sure I can handle the rest of my life. And plus, there are other options to have kids in life. We could adopt, or do artificial insemination maybe, or-" Casey cut herself off, realizing that they were talking about a life and marriage together.

Derek seemed to realize this at about the same time as he turned bright red and didn't appear to be breathing normally.

"Anyways, you have options." she stated hurriedly.

"I guess. I just…I've been the ladies man for so long. I don't know who I am without that. Maybe 'the one' won't care, but until then…"

"Der, just be yourself. You'll figure out who that is. And who your true friends are." she added, absent-mindedly letting him play with her fingers in his.

"So you being in here with me… does that mean you're one of them?" he asked, looking up with vulnerable brown eyes.

She smiled, squeezing the hand that was now wrapped around hers. "Like you could ever get rid of me." she teased, getting up to give him some time alone but pausing near the door when he spoke.

"Casey…? Thanks." he muttered.

She paced back, wrapped her arms around his neck and placed a gentle kiss to his cheek.

"You're still just as annoying and just as much a reason to pull out my hair. That's one thing that won't change." she told him softly, before leaving to her room, confused by her tender actions she just put on such display in front of the guy who drove her absolutely insane on a daily basis.

Derek too was confused, but his fingers reached up to touch the stinging skin where her lips grazed. He finally smiled a little to himself.


	3. First Steps

Hey guys, sorry for the slow updates, I was hoping for more reviews and trying to tweak this chapter a bit so it was less OOC. It was a fail, so I decided to update so you all don't hate me too much :)

Thank you to all who favourited, story alerted, author favourited, author alerted, etc and especially to my sole reviewer for the last chapter, I appreciate it! I love all who have reviewed in the past as well, and of course everyone who takes the time to read this story!

So in this chapter, I get a little more in detail about the functions Derek has. I did do some research so the spot where he fractured his spine is as close to what I wanted his function capabilities to be. Think of it as a diagonal kind of fracture, because otherwise I know you'd be thinking 'just say twelfth then.' But I do everything for a reason :)

Also I did invent the chin-up bar location.

And finally, I tried to put myself in his position but Ive never been paralysed so I dont know what its like. Forgive me if anything feels fake.

**I DO NOT OWN LIFE WITH DEREK !**

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****FIRST STEPS**

Derek woke in the morning, ready to leap up at the smell of pancakes cooking.

But half his body didn't respond and he sunk back into the sheets in defeat, his palms covering his eyelids as he groaned. He still couldn't believe this wasn't all some sick nightmare. He had taken for granted so many little things before and now regretted it more than ever.

It was hard to manoeuvre his body around without the muscles working in his quads. He still had minimal function down to his hips. He had some small function for bathroom needs, but still had to take certain medications, such as laxatives, to make it easier and had a beeper to signal when he should find a bathroom to pee. It was a small shred of independence, but he still would require assistance manoeuvring into the tub, or on the toilet, until he built up his arm muscles enough. They were already quite strong thanks to hockey and then rehab, and his legs had been muscular enough that they were relatively light to lift. But he needed his back muscles to really bulk up more before he could safely (without furthering harming his body's condition) do everything alone.

His spine had been fractured between the eleventh thoracic vertebrae and the first lumbar. It left him with some function of the hip region, but no function below the top of the thighs. From the top of the hip bone, his range of function gradually slowed into nothingness.

Derek looked up to see his chin-up bar hanging from the ceiling. He gritted his teeth and pulled his body backwards, using the headboard to lift himself up closer to the bar. He balanced on one arm, while the other fist grasped the metal before the other hand joined. His arms already shook with the effort of holding himself up with no assistance from his legs, and he shakily made one chin-up before collapsing back onto the bed, out of breath.

But Derek Venturi was anything but a quitter. He got up and tried again.

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After a few loud thumps and some bad cursing from Derek, Casey went to his room to investigate. She couldn't risk Marti hearing her Smerek talking so foully. She idolized her brother so much she'd quickly adapt and it would be a disaster.

Casey knocked lightly, nudging the door open, to find Derek doing push-ups, feet resting on the edge of his bed. Sweat dripped down his brow and he was panting hard, his face screwed up in athletic determination. She couldn't help but lean against the frame, smiling slightly at his commitment. She knew he had it in him to beat this thing, to not let his condition ruin living life to its full potential.

He collapsed on the floor after a moment and Casey instinctually moved forwards so he wouldn't fold his legs beneath him the wrong way. He couldn't feel when he was hurting them now and she wanted them to stay in perfect condition for the day that he may be able to walk again. She still grasped onto that shred of hope like it was the only candle in a dark world.

Derek looked up at her in surprise as she knelt beside him.

"Casey? What are you doing in my room? Is this your new favourite hangout or something?" he asked irritably, breathing heavily from exercise, but the smirk at the corners of his mouth signalled that he was only teasing.

She rolled her eyes, trying to hide her own smile, liking this new side of him and that the other night hadn't weirded him out too much. "Well if it wasn't for all the noise you were making, I wouldn't be in here. So if you could kindly KEEP IT DOWN then I will stay far, far away from your room."

"Hmm don't know if that can be arranged, I'll have to speak with my people…" he began but she smacked him hard in the arm and caused him to laugh and ruffle her hair playfully. She glowered at him for the new state of her hair which she had _just_ finished fixing for the day.

But secretly she was glad 'Der-ek' was still in there. He seemed to have reached a good spot now. He had been so subdued and bitter since the accident. Plus exercise released endorphins that were a mood regulator so that definitely helped.

"Breakfast ready yet?" he asked, pulling himself with minor difficulty back into his chair. It was so strange seeing him in it. It didn't seem to fit his outgoing personality. But Casey tried to shake the thought and adjust. This was the new reality. Time to accept it.

"Yeah I think it's all done. I know you Venturis have no patience when it comes to food…" she began teasing as she sashayed out of his swipe and out of the bedroom door, him following closely behind.

"Yeah, well, I know you McDonalds cook a hell of a batch of pancakes so forgive me." he replied, situating himself on his platform and hitting the button. She walked slowly in pace with the machine, a curious expression on her face but humour in her eyes.

"Did you just… _compliment_ my side of the family?" she asked in fake-shock, a hand over her heart.

He grinned and shoved her playfully. "If you tell anyone, I'll run you over."

She laughed pretty loud at that and the family seemed surprised at Derek's new spirits and the eldest teens interaction when they reached the bottom of the staircase together.

They all sat down together and when Derek started a food fight with Casey over some stupid argument, getting too many fruit pieces over her clothes and causing a shriek of "Der-ek!", the family finally relaxed and realized that everything was gradually reaching the new normal.

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Monday came quickly. It was Derek's first day back to the high school. He had already been sick three times. Even his puking nervous habit was inhibited by the accident, since he could no longer run to the toilet before spilling his guts. He cleaned up the first bout before anyone noticed and stayed in the bathroom until he felt well again.

It would be the first time he had seen Sam since he had been in the hospital. He of course had visited often but Derek was always undergoing further tests and physio and since his spine was fractured he spent a lot of time lying in bed. Since his body needed to heal, he got a lot of sleep too. But Sam brought him his work so he could keep up as well as he could for the few weeks he'd be out.

Derek hadn't really done much with what was brought to him. He tried to concentrate but couldn't prop the books up with his legs anymore, or even shift them slightly to tilt it at a better angle, so the frustration and angst made him unable to focus.

He was positive the news travelled like wild fire. It was in the newspaper for crying out loud. Any kind of teen being robbed of such independence gets broadcasted. He didn't give a statement like they asked.

He didn't want to be in the spotlight anymore.

Casey smiled gently at him as they got him out of the car and headed up the lot to the school. "You ready for this?"

"It's not going to be a big deal." he said with a scoff, trying to pass it off as nonchalant.

The pair entered the doors together and everyone stopped to stare.

Well that certainly helped his case.


	4. First Day

I rewrote this chapter so many times and chopped it up and rearranged and gah, let me know if I missed anything or if the flow is off at all. I tried to find all my mistakes but Ill gladly fix any you may find.

This chapter you see Derek's first day back, the initial school reaction, Dasey friendship fluff, but nothing too exciting. Mostly filler I suppose but Ive got to get this stuff out to work my way up to the good stuff :) Next chapter youll get an inside look at physio and some flashbacks from the hospital. I did my clinical for school at a rehab centre and I spent a lot of time in physio with my patient and loved it. It was amazing and interesting and was good research for this story :)

Finally, I mention the movie Panic Room and Adventureland. I love the suspense in Panic Room, and it was the first time I saw Kristen Stewart do anything. Adventureland, I just didnt understand. I spent the entire movie going "...wtf?" But thats just me haha.

**I DO NOT OWN LIFE WITH DEREK!**

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**FIRST DAY**

Derek didn't know where to look, or go. The only thing he knew was that the student body seemed to double in size since the last time he was there. Or maybe that was because he was half as tall as before thanks to his chair, and it made the amount of people seem much larger than the reality.

It was probably because every single person had their eyes practically popping out of their head as they stared at the former hockey god.

"Geez, who died?" Derek muttered to Casey, but it was so quiet in the building everyone heard.

Laughter broke out, albeit slightly awkward, and people started to smile and relax a little.

"_So_ I'm back… where's the party to welcome Triple D's return?" Derek asked cockily, raising an eyebrow as that smirk of his graced his handsome face.

The whole hall started cheering. Casey's broad smile was against her will as she watched some light return to her step-brother's eyes as the student body began rushing over to greet him excitedly. The guys started on the high-fives and back claps as the girls threw their arms around him in affectionate hugs. He simply reciprocated with a grin, obviously relieved by the positive attention.

"D, my parents are going away this weekend. We'll throw a huge thing at my place on

Saturday in your honour." one of his old hockey buds said, nudging his shoulder like they always do.

Derek grinned at him. "That's what I like to hear!"

Noticing the swarm quickly swooping down, Casey met Sam's eyes pleadingly. Sam smiled before cutting through the people.

"Alright, alright, that's enough, you paparazzi. We've got math to get to." Sam called out loudly, gesturing people out of the way as Derek followed gratefully.

He glanced back to see Casey getting shoulder-slammed by some girl who didn't even apologize. She nearly dropped her books but managed to keep her balance and her head held high. She kept walking, catching up with Emily who immediately started gibbering at a freakishly fast speed, no doubt about his return.

Derek half-listened to Sam review what he missed in math, his mind focused on Casey. He knew she wasn't the most popular at the high school, nowhere near really, but he thought since she dated Max that she had gotten out of the bottom of the social chain, even though she had quit cheerleading. Seeing that exchange, it wasn't that the girl didn't apologize, but that Casey seemed to be used to the behaviour. She didn't even look slightly ticked, her face just fell a tiny bit. And she brushed it off by the time Emily reached her. Was Casey still being bullied? He was going to have to do something about it, again.

But who would take him seriously when he couldn't move his legs? It wasn't very threatening when you were three feet shorter than everyone else and they could outrun you without trying. Showcasing confidence was what really separated bullies and their victims, but people weren't completely stupid; they'd still have the upper hand. Derek didn't know how far his persuasive techniques could go nowadays. But he had to try. No one messed with Casey except him.

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Math went by extremely slow. Even though they were working on questions all class, which usually made the time fly by, Derek didn't understand half of it. Math happened to be his best subject but because of all the time he missed, he was behind about a unit and a half. He would have to get Casey to explain it to him later.

Finally the bell rang and Derek wheeled to his next class. It was hard to manoeuvre around people when he had been able to _use_ his legs. Now he took up twice as much space. He was trying desperately not to run into anyone's heels or over their toes. It proved a difficult feat. How did people live like this? How was he supposed to live this way for the rest of his life?

Next class passed by slower than before. Derek even fell asleep for half of it and it still snailed by. Why they were watching _A_ _Midsummer's Night Dream _was a mystery to him. He didn't understand any of it, but then again he missed the most of it. Something about fairies and love-at-first-sight and donkeys. That's about all he got out of it.

Lunch time came and Derek sighed when he reached the counter. How on earth was he supposed to reach up to the top of the glass to pick up the good food? He couldn't even get a tray. Jesus, did these people never see someone in a wheelchair? He wasn't the only one in the school! How did they do it? He'd have to find one and ask them.

"What are you hungry for today, Der?" a smooth, familiar voice asked from behind him. Casey's long legs arrived in front of him before he could crane his neck to see her. She was smiling at him, holding out a tray.

Derek couldn't help but smile back. He was glad she was here. He supposed he could have asked Sam but Casey was after all…family. Why was that so hard to acknowledge?

Probably because he spent the majority of their relationship either denying her existence or clashing with her personality.

Yeah. Exactly.

"What's available?" Derek asked, straining his neck to try to see even the hint of a food item. They were all sitting on trays up on top of the glass so he couldn't even peek through the bottom to know.

"Um we have mac and cheese, hamburgers, pizza, apples, chocolate cake, Caesar salad, milk, water, oh and turkey sandwiches." Casey listed, bouncing on her tiptoes to see around the people in line.

"Hmm…mac and cheese, cake, and water." Derek decided.

"Derek, that is unhealthy. You are adding either the salad or the apple to that mix."

He rolled his eyes. "Water's healthy.

She kept her glare up, tapping her foot patiently.

"Fine, I'll take the damn salad. I'm just starving."

Casey smiled victoriously and loaded his tray up, placing it next to him on the metal bars as they moved along in the line.

He tried not to smile. Casey was always trying to take care of him. He didn't know why she tried so hard. It was like her brain was just wired to perform to the best of her ability at everything she attempted.

The pair made their way over to a lunch table. Casey pulled a chair away so Derek could wheel in place and when she started to leave, he spoke. "What, you're not even going to eat with your favourite brother on his first day back?" he asked, eyebrow raised as a cocky smirk settled comfortably on his face.

Casey giggled. "Well seeing as you're not my brother, no. But I will sit with you, Derek, if you want me to."

He gestured her to sit as he eyed her quizzically. "What am I to you then, if I'm not your brother?"

She pondered for a moment then shrugged. "You're just Derek."

For some reason, this pleased him enough to morph his smirk into a grin before Emily and Sam joined their table.

"So big party this weekend, D. Jason is pulling out all the stops for your return." Sam added enthusiastically.

Derek aimed the grin not leaving his face, pretending it was about the news, towards his best friend. "Can't wait. So glad to be getting back to regular stuff. I'm so sick of that rehab place it's unreal. So white and crisp lines and ugh it just was gross."

They all ate quietly for a moment before Derek spoke again.

"So I'm thinking movie night this Friday at our place? Just us four?"

Casey tried not to stare. Did Derek just invite HER and Emily to do something with him? Granted it wasn't in public but usually he made every effort to seem like he thought she was the result of a toxic spill, and anyone in association. Things certainly had changed. Both Emily and Sam looked surprised, but Sam was fast to recover.

"Sounds good. The usual horror?"

"Oh please!" Emily squealed. Casey's eyes went huge.

"Oh come on Case, don't give me that look, I thought Emily helped cure you of your fear of pathetic horror movies?" Derek teased.

"Well sure, the predictable lame ones but what about those disgusting torturous ones? You love those. They sicken me. They permanently mess up the person and I stay horrified forever that someone could be that sick and twisted and those people really walk the earth and they could find me-"

"What because you watched a film somewhat similar you're suddenly a target? I don't think they're that bright, Case, or psychic." Derek said amusedly.

"I think _you _of all people would know the ignorance is bliss concept. I'd prefer not to know a million and one ways to end someone's life, thank you."

He rolled his eyes as Sam and Emily chuckled.

"Compromise?" Sam suggested.

Emily nodded vigorously. "How about an action or suspense movie? Something to get your adrenaline pumping but not disturb or freak Casey out?"

"Oh I know the perfect one!" Casey said excitedly.

"Princesses waiting for their rainbow ponies to descend from planet marshmallow does not count." Derek deadpanned.

Even Casey had to bite back a laugh at how sarcastic he was. "Shut up, moron. I was thinking _Panic Room_."

"I LOVE that movie! One of my favourites." Emily added approvingly.

Derek looked sceptical so Casey quickly rushed forward.

"It's about a mom and her daughter trapping themselves in a safe room when three criminals break into their house. But then they can't get out and the people know they're in there and oh my god it's so intense! It has Jodie Foster, and Kristen Stewart pre-_Twilight_!"

"That awkward one?"

Casey sighed irritably.

Sam cut in. "See her in _Adventureland_? She's got a body on her."

"Whatever. Sure."

Casey clapped her hands like a little kid and Derek couldn't help but smile a little with the rest of them.

* * *

Finally school ended and Derek and Casey headed home together. Derek watched in envy as Casey drove the Prince home. It was her car now. They were planning on selling it soon anyways, to help pay for the other new van. But the fact that even that got taken away from him, forced Derek to stare out of the window silently for the whole ride home.

"How was school?" Nora asked brightly when they came in the door.

"Eh…" Derek grunted vaguely, but Nora beamed. That was a typical Derek answer so she knew nothing too bad had happened.

Casey smiled reassuringly at her mother to let her know her assumption was right. "We've got another Shakespearean essay, this time on _A Midsummer's Night Dream_."

"What, we have an essay on that? I missed half of the movie!"

Casey changed her tone to one reserved for a five year old. "Well luckily Derek, there is this thing called a _book_ that you can read, that the movie is based off of. We're not writing the essay off the movie, but the play."

Derek groaned and headed to his recliner, pulling his body up with difficulty and lounging out on his chair.

"Yeah, well, I'll do that later." he said noncommittally. Casey rolled her eyes and tugged his hand.

"Come on Derek, let's at least get started on that math homework. I need to catch you up on functions and proofs."

"I just got in the door, give me an hour to unwind, woman!"

"Oh quite being a baby, the sooner we start, the sooner you can fully relax. That homework is going to nag you at the back of your brain until you do it."

"See, that's the difference between me and you, keeners like you actually worry about crap like that. Slackers like me don't have it cross our minds. It's blissful."

Casey rolled her eyes. "There are a lot more differences between us-"

"Aw, and I thought biology was last term."

She ignored that and continued. "_But _we _are_ both stubborn, and if you think that I'm going to wait around for you until you feel like doing your homework, you can just forget it. It's either now, or waste hours on end trying to figure out all the problems on your own. Take it or leave it."

"Sheesh, when did you become so manipulative?"

He couldn't lie. He was impressed. He avoided her eyes and pretended to be glued to the TV so she couldn't detect the admiration reflecting back.

"Since I met you. Now get up and let's get a move on."

Impressed or not, Derek still grudgingly followed. One day of school and it was like he signed up for homework club for the rest of the year. Casey was all too happy to be president of his own personal school-catch-up club.

But truth be told, he was sort of happy she was there.

You know, just a _little _bit.


	5. New Reality

Hi, I'm THE WORST UPDATER EVERRRRRRRRRR!

So sorry for the lack of updates. When I looked and saw my story as 81 on the fanfic page (page 4!) and saw that I havent updated since June 29, I was appalled. This month has been sooooo so busy for me, and I'd love to say I've been writing but just havent taken the time to update, but that would be a lie. I've been working 40hrs a week at work, along with going away twice, and a lot a lot a lot of personal crap has been taking up my time on my time off so I havent been in the right frame of mind to write, especially this emotional story. If I had have been writing, then it would have turned out that everyone died painful deaths or something equally morbid and depressing.

ANYWAYS I got a sweet message from one of my favourite writers on here yesterday (lavenderskyxx - shes amazing!) and remembered why I love writing so much. So this chapter goes out to you my lovely readers, and Ive been lovingggggggggg the reviews. Feel free to virtually slap me for being so slow.

On to the story. As promised, this is a look inside a physio appointment with Derek, and then a flashback to the hospital. I will be continuing the flashback to the hospital in probably the next chapter. Not sure how I feel about it, I didn't get as much revision done on it as I would have liked but as I don't have a day off for over a week, I can't guarantee how much longer it wouldve taken me if I had have taken the extra time out. ANYWAYS point out all mistakes please, and I will do my best to fix them :)

Reviews are highlyyyy welcome, as I have written an original similar to this and any feedback about this is much much much appreciated. I need it now more than ever!

PS I really dont know exactly what doctors would say at a time like this, or every type of arrangement that would need to be done, or how long things take, or how to treat a fractured spine. So I apologize for any discrepency. Also, the physio exercises are true exercises :) I did a lot of research, along with having done my clinical at a rehab center so that is first hand experience I was writing there ;) But as I have never lost feeling in my legs (thank god) I don't know exactly what things would feel like, so again, sorry if it seems fake or off or wrong. I can only use my imagination and common sense.

PPS My Vacation with Dasey story I will be updating ASAP as well. But again, work eats up my lifeeeeeee. Im hoping it will be realllllly soon!

**I DO NOT OWN LIFE WITH DEREK!**

* * *

**NEW REALITY**

"Now don't give me that charming smirk of yours, Venturi, I'm still making you do fifty." Patricia said cheekily, flashing him a grin.

Derek grinned right back, rolling his eyes, as he continued his exercise, yanking the pulley across his body amusedly.

Patricia was his physiotherapist, and ever since they first met they got on well. She was about twenty-eight but so easygoing, personable and too much like him, that they couldn't possibly clash. He now only hit on her to bug her and to hear her sarcastic remarks. She was beautiful and charming, but happily engaged and Derek respected that; he just liked messing with everyone.

He resurrected the whining. "_Come on_, it's been a tough day. I had to go back to _school_ today. All that learning has to be bad for my condition. I'm sure if you wrote a note they'd still pass me." he added innocently.

She rolled her eyes and sat on a stool in front of him.

"How _was _school? Seeing everyone again after being away for so long?" she asked, and it didn't come off as pitying or patronizing, just empathically curious.

Derek released the pulley with a sigh. "It was fine. Everyone was like before. Except their eyes. They look at me different. It's only a matter of time before their actions follow. The reality probably hasn't quite set in yet."

Patricia nodded. "It's possible. Or it's possible that they just need some time to get used to the idea and then everything will go back to normal. But Derek, I will remind you that it will be a _new_ normal. It's still going to be hard, but it will get easier. And you'll find out who your true friends are."

Derek nodded as they wheeled over to the platform. He had to practice lifting himself to higher heights from his chair. Patricia would spot him in case he lost his balance but he was getting rather good at it so she needn't bother anymore. He was comfortable doing it on his own now, but it did take a lot of strength.

Mostly at physio they worked on strengthening his shoulder and arm muscles as they would be carrying around his weight now rather than his legs. His back was also important to strengthen as it provided the balance necessary for transfers or any type of activity.

"Thirty reps, Venturi." Patricia teased when he started on his push-ups a few minutes later.

He would lie across two different level platforms, resting his hands on the lower level so his legs were elevated as if being held up by his feet, then do however many reps Patricia instructed.

Once that was finished, they moved to the ramp where he would simply strengthen his arms by driving up and down a slope. It practiced control while working his arms.

"Alright let's sit and talk for a minute." she instructed, leading him over to where they practiced the higher level lifts.

"I _have_ been sitting and talking to you this whole time." Derek teased amusedly. She giggled, rolling her eyes at his ability to make light of his condition, and waited patiently for him to join her on the matted platform.

"Hey, brake, you!" she scolded, raising an eyebrow as if to test him to challenge her.

He sighed, having almost forgot to put on the brake before transferring over. It was a safety hazard for obvious reasons.

She spoke again when he was seated beside her, now more serious. "So Derek, you have been doing really great so far with these sessions. Your progress is much better than most for being this early on. Luckily, hockey kept you in such fabulous shape before. It really helps that you're already a fit individual. SO I know we're still in early days but because of your incredible progress and the strength in your upper body, I was wondering if you would feel comfortable trying to walk?"

Derek blanched. Try to…walk? He couldn't feel his legs! Wouldn't they simply crumple beneath him? They would just drag him down.

"Before you panic," she continued. "I would be with you the whole time, holding you with a harness. You would be between two parallel bars, keeping your body upright with your arms and using what strength you have in your back and hips to move each leg forward. It is simply an exercise, just to see how much ability you have with the location of your paralysis. We can wait or avoid it all together if you're uncomfortable at all."

Derek nodded, appreciating how client-based physiotherapy was. They weren't just physically respectful, but emotionally, mentally, psychologically, too. They understood that the people that were there, especially in rehab, were going through a lot more than just a little pain in their back.

"I want to try." he found himself saying. He hadn't stood up since the day of the accident. He would be able to feel it, so it would be a new sensation to be upright and feel like he was floating.

He followed her in his chair, nerves creeping in. There was something so intimidating about trying to walk. But he wanted to try. Maybe one day he would be able to again. Maybe.

Patricia hooked his harness up as his hands began to quake.

_Get a grip, Venturi! _he mentally chastised, gritting his teeth at his weakness.

It was really a moment of truth. Patricia would be able to evaluate better how far he could go with the way he was. If he never tried, he wouldn't know if he couldn't. But he was about to stand because he was ready to know if he _could_. The pressure, still, was almost suffocating; he never did test well.

"Alright, ready whenever you are." She told him, standing on an angle across from him. "Remember not to _pull_ yourself but _lift_ yourself." She was referring to the importance of using his shoulders to lift himself rather than pulling himself up, which would strain his lower back.

Derek did as he was told and 'stood' with difficulty. He felt the harness' support and felt a bit better as he gripped the rails tightly, swaying until he found his balance, tightening the muscles of his back. It really did feel like he was floating or something. It was such a weird sensation.

His face screwed up in concentration, he moved his hip to shuffle one foot forward, using all the strength he could in his shoulders and back. His body dipped a little but he managed to pull himself back to regular height to move the next one. Unconsciously, he felt the support of the harness lessen as he made his way across.

He was panting in the end and when Patricia brought his chair behind him, he practically collapsed in it, out of breath and worn from the exertion.

She was smiling brightly at him.

"Derek, that was really good!" she exclaimed, clearly excited.

Derek managed a smile, tired but exhilarated. It felt good to be in charge of his body, even a tidbit.

"You're free to go, kid. Looks like your girlfriend is here already." she added, seeing a beautiful brunette by the door, looking amazed and overexcited by the sight she had seen.

"_Patty_, I told you that was my step-sister." he reminded her amusedly, using the nickname he knew bugged her.

She grinned, ignoring the jab. "You say tomato…" she taunted, patting him on the shoulders before leaving him alone.

He rolled his eyes, not knowing what she was seeing.

Casey was beaming when he wheeled over.

"Derek, that was so awesome! I didn't know what kind of stuff you did at physio so I decided to come inside to pick you up and I'm just so glad I got to see that. You did so great! I'm so proud of you." she exclaimed. Derek was shocked to see her eyes glistening with unshed tears. Was she _that_ happy?

"Thanks. It was really hard though. My arms are going to be sore tomorrow. But let's get home so I can work on that essay." Derek said, pausing before he left out of the door, a look of horror crossing his face. "Oh no, I'm turning into you!"

Casey smirked, and danced out of his swatting swipe, prancing down the hall. "Consider yourself lucky then!"

Later that night, after an exhausting tutoring session for the majority of the evening with Derek, Casey got ready for bed. They had gotten through a whole unit in math and managed to make a rough outline for both of their essays. It had been a mentally draining night, even for Casey.

She had changed into comfy pyjamas and was getting a glass of water in the dark kitchen when her mom entered in search of the same thing.

"Casey, darling, heading to bed?" she asked tenderly, squeezing her shoulders as she passed by to pull down a glass from the cupboard.

Casey nodded. "Just getting some water."

"How's Derek doing? You guys worked hard tonight." Nora noted as she sipped at her own glass.

"He's probably dead asleep by now." Casey told her amusedly. "Physio was really draining and on top of that we went through a LOT of stuff. Thankfully he managed to stay focused and keep up. He's always been such a slacker but I knew if he applied himself he could get somewhere. I think he's a little surprised at himself though."

Nora smiled. "He's going through a lot. It must be encouraging to be succeeding at something he used to lack in."

Casey nodded slowly.

"Casey, I want to thank you for putting your differences behind you and going to such lengths to help Derek. I know you guys don't always get along, but it means a lot to the family, and to Derek I'm sure, that you are so supportive in his time of need. As much as this has been a tragedy, at least some good can come out of it."

"Less headaches? Don't worry mom, we'll soon be back to bickering like cat and dog. I'd give it a week." Casey teased, surprising herself at the affection in her voice regarding their fights.

Nora smiled. "I meant more that you came to terms with how important he is to you. I didn't like you both parading around like the other meant nothing. You are family."

Casey felt a little uncomfortable, and she wasn't sure exactly why. Maybe because she and Derek were always denying their relation to each other.

"I think that day at the hospital was a reality check for us all."

Casey didn't want to remember that day. The day the McDonald-Venturi's had their whole world turned upside down and shaken…

_The family had rushed to the rink, unable to figure out how Casey had managed to push through so many people so quickly. When they arrived, slipping on the ice, she was crying by his side, the medics rushing over._

"_Miss, we need you to get out of the way to help your boyfriend." one of the paramedics was saying gently to her, pushing her firmly but carefully to get her to move. She was sobbing while holding onto his arm. She didn't even bother to correct him, although to be fair she could hardly form words at all._

"_Casey, what did he say to you?" Sam asked her when she moved away, his face quite green and his usually innocent eyes shadowed with fear for his best friend._

"_He….he…he…" she stuttered, trying to get a hold of herself._

_She stopped trying when she saw them put her step-brother on a stretcher. His eyes were still closed, as if asleep. His words were echoing in her head like a broken record. She knew she would never be able to forget the terror in his eyes._

_Casey chased after them as they went to leave the rink to meet the ambulance outside. Their parents and siblings followed quickly._

"_Please, I want to stay with him." she begged, her eyes shining._

"_I'm sorry, only family can ride in the ambulance."_

_George spoke, wheezing slightly at the exercise he wasn't used to. "Let her. I'm his father. She's his step-sister."_

_The paramedics regarded her interestingly before holding out a hand to help her hop in._

"_I'll meet you guys there." Casey said seriously, having stopped crying and getting a grip finally. They nodded and raced to the car._

_At the hospital, they all waited anxiously in the waiting room. Casey was back with them now, hugging her knees and staring off into space. She hadn't told the family what he said. She wanted Derek to be proven wrong by the doctors. Maybe it was shock or something…_

_Lizzie was cuddled up to Nora, Marti to Edwin. George was pacing so much they were surprised holes hadn't been burned through his shoes._

_The plain-faced clock on the wall continued to tick obnoxiously slow._

_The doctor finally came out after god knows how long. It felt like years._

"_Can I speak with Mr. Venturi please?"_

"_Honestly, you might as well relay the information to all of us. I'll be telling them what you tell me word for word, and I'd rather save the breath." George said. Everyone gripped on to each other as the doctor nodded._

"_Well, your son Derek received a bad fracture to his spine…his spinal cord is compressed. I'm so sorry. It has resulted in paraplegia."_

_Casey choked, while the rest looked confused._

_The doctor sighed desolately. "It means your son no longer has function of his legs."_

"_Ever…?" Edwin asked in horror._

_The doctor chewed the inside of his cheek. "Well, compression of the spinal cord is not as permanent as the severing of one, but yes, it is very unlikely he will ever get feeling back in his legs."_

"_I know this is a lot to take in, but there are a lot of arrangements that need to be made. The receptionist can help you work out what your insurance covers, but we will need to book him a spot at the rehabilitation center to help him adjust to his new life, where he will meet with physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and a whole team of experts to help him adjust to his new life. He will need a wheelchair, and you can meet with his occupational therapist to find out what changes need to be made to your home."_

"_I understand that this is a very tough time for all of you. But Derek will need your support now more than ever. He is so young to be robbed of such life, but this is his new reality. It's important he knows that some things haven't changed, such as your love and support for him."_

"_When can we see him?" Lizzie asked desperately._

"_In a couple hours. He was sedated for the pain and to fit his brace. I suggest you guys get something to eat. It's been a long night."_

_They nodded and thanked him, but ended up spending the full two hours sitting there in shock as all of the 'never agains' and 'what ifs' ran through their minds._


	6. The Beginning

My sincerest apologies for taking so very long to update. I plan on never taking that long on a story EVER again. I reached an unbreakable form of writers block for this story last summer, and with my Vacation with Dasey story starting and being based in summer, my inspiration for that was flowing out of control. So I let that one go and now that its over, I've decided that I owe it to my wonderful readers to update this and fight through the writers block. I have finally broken through, and I think I have a better idea where this is going now, so yay :)

Anyways, I have rewritten the majority of my authors notes for this story because my other ones were so long and annoying haha. Two remain untouched, but I explained a lot more about where I'm going with this story in the Prologue AN because I wasnt as clear as I liked to be. Basically to summarize, this story is based on one of my originals, so I am begging for reviews now more than ever since I can learn from this story what to change in that one with some direction :) Also, the Dasey fluff will be numerous, but I am going to spend more time building their friendship than I have in past stories, because I want this story to be less about the wonderful forbidden love romance of Dasey, and more about moving on from something tough with support and love of those around you, that friends and family can really get you through anything. And I wanted to touch on Derek's character, make him as a character go through some self-reflection and self-esteem things, realizing that he's not JUST a ladies man and a hockey god, that those are not all that he is. So in a lot of ways I wanted this story to go more psychological than my others have, while still being the fun and lightheartedness of Dasey romance :)

In this chapter, I added some flashbacks that are painful; some Dasey friendship fluff while easing into the Dasey romance stuff (which wont be for a whilee); and some explanations for the reality side of Derek's condition. I apologize for any inaccuracy or anything unrealistic, I am just going by what I know and making it so I can bend things later. I know not all of it is perfectly scientific but Im trying to get it as close to the truth as possible. I researched what I can but sometimes I just have to make an educated guess on what adjustments have to be made. But please, correct me if you can.

Also I mention Clueless. I know tons of Daseys have before (love SEZCPLs Film 101!) but it just sort of came out that way. It was reallyyy hard to get this chapter written only because Im still struggling with the middle part of the story. I know the last three quarters of the story til the end, but the inbetween was so murky. Ive got more of an outline now so hopefully thatll change in the future :)

For the flashback, Derek is falling in and out of consciousness if that isnt clear. He was being put under which is why he feels so drugged, but your body will pass out if the pain is too much, its one of the defense mechanisms or whatnot. If anything else in there is unclear, PM me or leave a review :)

Finally, a special thank you to Crystal (itsi3) for reviewing each chapter of this story, and following my other stories too. Its people like you that help me push through the writers block and continue on :)

PS Longest AN ever. My apologies. But Happy Easter :)

**I DO NOT OWN LIFE WTIH DEREK!**

* * *

**THE BEGINNING**

"Der-ek!" Casey screeched at him, trying to fish the popcorn out of her hair.

She hadn't noticed he'd been subtly tossing bits into her hair throughout the whole movie. Sam had to turn away from her because he was going to laugh and although Derek was his best friend, he didn't want to offend Casey by condoning his behaviour. Emily herself had to clap a hand over her mouth to muffle her giggles.

Derek grinned at his step-sister, lounging on his recliner without concern for her temper.

It was Friday night and they were having their movie night, equipped with candy, popcorn and cans of soda. And of course, Derek/Casey fights. It wouldn't be right without them bickering over one thing or another.

"Why are you so infuriating?" Casey huffed, tossing a handful of gummy candy at him, causing him to laugh harder.

"All part of my charm, babe." he teased, eating some of the candy she threw at him.

She rolled her eyes and shook her body, as if trying to rid herself of irritation but her arms remained crossed.

"I can't believe it took you so long to notice. I've been doing it for at least the last half hour." Derek told her, chuckling to himself, not wanting their fighting to end yet.

She shot him a dirty look. "Wipe that smirk off your face, Venturi, or I'll do it for you. You don't have to act like a five year old."

"You're the one who can't take a joke. Try to stop being such a nanny. _Dears, will you cut that racket out! Nanny's trying to read._" he imitated a frail, old lady voice.

Casey's eyes lit with fire and she got up from her seat and tackled him on the chair, causing him to shout in surprise as her body collided with his and her fists started pounding against him.

Emily and Sam laughed, shaking their heads as the pair wrestled. It was times like these they all forgot Derek could no longer walk.

Function of his legs or not, Derek still knew her weak points. He found that tickle spot just beneath her rib cage and she squealed and collapsed in his arms, trying to struggle away but he held on tight, laughing harder at her sad attempts to get away.

After they were out of breath, Casey was laying across his lap, glaring up at him while he tried to stop grinning. He always thought it was fun to bug Casey, but now that they were getting closer as friends, it was ten times more fun. He spotted a piece of popcorn still in her hair and fished it out gracefully without thinking.

She smiled gratefully when she saw the freed food and he felt a weird feeling pass over him at their physical proximity.

"Should we even ask?" came Nora's amused voice from the doorway as she and George took off their coats, noticing their children's jumbled position.

"Probably better not to." Derek said with a shrug as Casey climbed out of his chair.

Casey leaned a bit of weight on the end of his chair so it nearly keeled over, but released before it could so he just sort of had a panicked jolt. He shot her a look and she simply smiled sweetly back at him.

"Behave you two. Hello Emily. Sam." Nora said, nodding towards the other two amused teenagers. They called back their greetings and raised their eyebrows at the pair.

"So we might want to rewind a bit?" Casey asked sheepishly, blushing a little now at all the attention they were getting. She forgot how much she and Derek getting sidetracked affected everyone else.

She grabbed the remote, trying to ignore the amused looks from the two next to her.

* * *

After Sam and Emily left, Derek and Casey headed upstairs.

"Going to bed already, keener?" Derek asked when he saw Casey heading to her room.

She shrugged. "I might read for a bit. I don't know, I'm not tired enough to sleep yet."

"Want to hangout for a bit in my room then? I'm not tired either."

Casey smiled, happy for _this_ change since the accident. Spending time with Derek was something she was growing really fond of.

Derek lifted himself onto his bed, rolling his eyes when Casey opened her mouth to remind him to brake the chair first, and safely settled in on the blankets.

Casey blushed at her attempt to go over the top at keeping him safe. She knew it was a protectiveness that had always been there, but the accident had brought it into sharper focus. It was something that wouldn't change. She would forever more go out of her way to take care of the man before her, because she wasn't sure she could survive seeing him go through pain like that again.

Derek patted the spot next to him and grabbed his laptop, immediately clicking and typing, not saying a word.

Casey shrugged and collapsed next to him, wondering what on earth he was up to. She figured they'd talk and listen to music or something.

"I've got some movies on demand on here, we could watch one if you want." he suggested, noticing her blank look to the ceiling and figured she was bored and confused.

She sat up and resettled herself against his pillows.

"Sounds good. What do you have?" Casey asked, leaning closer to peer at the shadowed screen.

"Hmm, mostly old chick flicks by the looks of things… and some horror." he added mischievously, smirking at her sour expression. "There's also porn…"

"Der_ek_." Casey whined exasperatedly, wondering why she put up with him, knowing he was just saying all this to wind her up. But she still blushed red anyways. She was… rather innocent. Not a prude, just not exactly into watching people have sex. It was a personal choice.

He chuckled and squeezed her hand comfortingly. "Here, I'll put on your favourite. I've never seen it before anyways." he said, clicking the icon to something Casey missed as the screen expanded and the first seconds played.

Casey didn't think much of it until the familiar opening sounded. She tried not to freak out.

_Clueless _was playing. Which meant Derek was about to find out that her favourite movie had a girl ending up with her step-brother. This would not be good.

But she made her face neutral, forcing a small smile at him, as his arm wrapped around her. He sensed her tension, wondering what it could be from. He pulled her closer so she could see better, mulling over what it could be.

Casey leaned against his chest as the movie went on, her hand absentmindedly sliding under his ruffled t-shirt to stroke his muscular torso. Derek didn't make any kind of inclination that he didn't like the action, so Casey continued when she finally caught on to what she was doing. She knew hockey had kept in good shape, but she had a feeling he had some extra bulk to him now. The physio exercises were helping him build his core and back muscles up, since they had to do a lot more supporting than before. She blushed a little as she wondered what he looked like without a shirt now.

Derek felt the heat of her blush against his neck, wondering what she could be embarrassed about. There was nothing on screen that would make her uncomfortable in any way. He let it slide, biting his lip as he tried to concentrate on the movie. He didn't want to outright ask her. Ever since they started becoming close friends, he had been a lot more respectful of her space, at least emotionally. Physically they were almost always touching nowadays.

Casey's body began relaxing as she moulded into his. He was so comfortable and warm. She found herself dozing off and it was only minutes later that she was asleep.

Derek laughed at one part, looking down to see Casey's reaction, only to find her curled up asleep into his side. He debated over whether or not to turn off the movie, but decided to keep watching since surprisingly he was enjoying it.

That was until he got to the ending, where Josh and Cher's argument ended up with them kissing. It was too easy to see elements of his and Casey's relationship in their interactions which meant, _well_, he could see the same result occurring.

He closed the computer after the fluffy ending and pulled Casey closer, accidentally waking her.

She turned her head up to face him. "I guess I _was_ tired enough to sleep." she murmured bashfully, hoping that she hadn't drooled on him or something.

Derek brushed some hair off her face. "Your snoring kept me up."

"Der-ek! I do not snore." she pouted irritably, causing him to laugh.

"You are so easy." he teased, but there was affection behind it.

"Did you finish watching the movie?" Casey asked in a small voice, tucking her head in his shoulder to hide her face, her heart beating faster.

Derek smiled, understanding what her change in behaviour was from. "Yeah I did."

Casey waited for him to continue, and when he didn't, she sighed to herself.

Derek continued, noting her impatience. "It was surprisingly good. Most chick flicks are painful to endure, but it was sort of funny and cute. And taught me some things."

There was something in his voice that caused her to tilt her head up to meet his eyes. "Like what?"

Derek smiled. "Like, you can't help who you fall in love with. And even though on paper it doesn't seem like it would work since you're so different, you both know it's inevitable. And that you'll make it through regardless."

Casey stared back at him as he watched her closely. When did Derek get so feelings-oriented? And was he saying what she thought he was?

Derek swallowed. Was that too forward? Okay, yeah. He couldn't have been more obvious if he had have put I LOVE YOU CASEY MCDONALD on a billboard with Broadway lights surrounding it. But he wasn't sure what he was feeling. He just knew he was growing more and more dependent on Casey, and that he didn't mind it one bit. The more time he spent with her the more he felt like his feelings weren't going to change any time soon. He had had a thing for her since she moved in, but he figured it would pass. It had been about three years and still to no avail. But since the accident his feelings were only deepening.

But he liked this friends thing a lot. He didn't want to do anything to mess it up. And maybe being friends like they were now was really what he had been after all along. He had felt much more satisfied with things since they became closer. He couldn't be entirely happy because who could when everything they took for granted was taken away from them in one moment?

Casey was looking at him differently and Derek knew he had to step in before things got awkward.

"I have to pee." he blurted out, cutting through the tension like only he could.

She shifted so he could pull himself out and headed to the bathroom down the hall. He mentally patted himself on the back for his excellent excuse.

Casey figured correctly that it was an excuse. She hadn't heard his beeper go off.

Since the accident rendered his lower half paralyzed, he didn't have full function of his bladder. He thankfully could use the bathroom himself but he had mostly had trouble knowing _when_ he had to go. He could minimally feel when he had to pee, but it was rather dull so he intermittently had to catheterize his bladder, which meant inserting a tube up his urethra to his bladder to drain the fluid. It was rather uncomfortable, but not painful if done properly. He had tons of practice by now and had to do this a few times a day. He had his watch set to beep every few hours to remind him.

Derek had learned all of this at the hospital and later on the rehab centre. It was a lot to take in at the time. He nor the family wanted to relive those memories again but often he found them sneaking back up…

* * *

_Derek heard a low humming in his ears. Had he fallen asleep while driving? There were voices talking in what seemed to be hushed whispers, as if afraid to wake him. He felt like he was drugged. Maybe they were kidnapping him or something. He couldn't bring himself to move. He wasn't sure if he even could. His body felt strangely heavy but he was losing feeling in his lower half. Although that should alarm him, he couldn't help but fall deeper asleep…_

_A similar humming filled his ears once more the next time he woke. He felt more now. Pain, white hot searing pain, and hands lifting and probing and manoeuvring his body. He didn't know what they were doing but the pain was too distracting. It hurt so badly he couldn't even think. He didn't know which way was up or even where the pain was coming from._

_"Give him more morphine!" someone shouted, suddenly loud, and normally Derek would jump except he was using all of his energy not to scream out._

_The pain became too much and he fell into blackness once more._

_More time must have passed since he last awoke, since the humming was still there but no voices, soft or loud, were around him. No hands touching him. He was fairly certain he was alone._

_With difficulty, Derek opened his eyes, squinting at the fluorescent lights above him. After so much time in the dark, the light hurt his eyes. He closed them once more, trying to figure out where he was. The room was a stale white, with those cheap tiles with the billion holes in them on the ceiling. He moved his hands to touch the crisp, substandard sheets and blanket covering him._

_It slowly dawned him that he was in a hospital. And what had happened at the hockey game._

_Derek immediately felt panic fill him. His eyes snapped open and he tried to move his numb legs. He tried harder. His breathing shortened as he tried to simply wiggle his toes, or adjust his hips, or anything. Fear began to take over, and he tried to get up, but there was a brace holding him steady._

_He heard the monitors beside his bed, that he hadn't noticed until then, start going haywire, beeping like mad. It took him until the nurses and doctor ran in to realize that he was the one making them do so, since his heart rate and blood pressure were rising higher and higher the more he realized how trapped he was._

_Derek had no idea what his expression was at that moment, but they all froze as if a fast motion train passed inches from them, blocking their path. But Derek felt his expression crumple as he realized what all of this meant._

_The nurses backed away quietly, respectfully, as his beeping slowed._

_Derek willed himself not to cry. He was The Great Derek Venturi. He didn't cry in front of strangers. He didn't cry period._

_The doctor remained, a solemn look on his face._

_"I'm sorry, Derek." he said, and began his spiel, resting a hand on Derek's shoulder as the teenager began sobbing into his hands, his dignity lost with the use of his legs._


	7. Change

Hey beauties :) Sorry for the delay, but I wanted to get it right. Ive been distracted with work and life lately, so my writing has, as usual, taken a hit, but I am TRYING to be better. Im getting more inspired for this story again so I hope you guys will keep reading and reviewing, because I appreciate it so much :) !

This chapter has more of the flashbacks from the hospital. This is the right-after-shock period, so forgive the OOCness. I'm trying to push them back to their 'real' selves, but Ive got to explain this crap first haha, and if the rest is OOC right after that, during has to be too ;P Its one of the reasons I find this story so difficult to write and update, because I spend the entire time writing going 'they wouldnt say that, this is out of character, its not realistic, its not believable' etc, because Ive done better writing since I started this story over a year ago but when I write this, I revert back to my old, less decent writing. Which sounds dumb, but thats what it feels like haha.

Sorry this chapter is shorter than the others, but this was just the best place to break it off in my opinion. I didnt want to go on and on during the flashback because Im more interested in moving on with the story. But next chapter is going to be the partyyy, which Im sort of excited about writing. It wont be all rainbows and happy times though, but Im hoping itll push the story into the right direction.

ANYWAYS, enjoy, thanks for reading and dont be shy about leaving a review ;) I really do appreciate them more than you know :)

**I DO NOT OWN LIFE WITH DEREK!**

* * *

_Derek lay still, staring distantly towards the ceiling. His thoughts were running laps around his mind, at super warp speed. All the changes, all the losses, all the things that would end. He was still in grief. He couldn't think positive or tell himself it would be okay, things would get better. He just wanted to sit there and wallow._

_Logically, he knew there were people worse off out there. He knew that. There was a part of his brain that knew that. But _that_ part of his brain was being overridden with pain. Grief. Mourning. Mourning the loss of the life he lived, the one he took for granted._

_When you can step back and see that other people have it worse, it can ground you a little bit, get you to see some sense and that things aren't as bad as they seem. But when that bad thing happens to you personally… it's just different. It's you that other people wish they weren't. And for a guy who was used to being idolized, well, it wasn't a very easy concept to grasp._

_Derek went through the typical stages of mourning. Denial, where he tried to convince himself it was just a phase and once his fracture healed up he'd be able to move his legs again. Anger, where he was furious that another person had done this to him, that he hadn't seen the guy coming towards him because he was so focused on getting that goal, that his passion had been his ultimate fail. Bargaining, begging God or whoever was listening up there that if they gave him another chance, let him live that night over again so he could do it right, let him walk again so he couldn't take things for granted like he did. He'd be a better son, brother, friend, boyfriend, he swore. He'd be a better man, if he could just go back to the way things were. And now he had reached the depression stage. Floundering between phases as one always does, but all the losses were screaming in his mind. He just wanted to shut them up._

_The family came to visit him about an hour after he got the news. He hardly looked them in the faces, trying to force a smile onto his face for Marti but he was in so much pain, both emotional and physical, that it was a tough feat. Her eyes were shining as she looked up at her big brother, understanding without words that he was defeated, that things would be so different from then on. That things may never go back to the way they were. For a young girl who was perfectly happy with the way things were, that's a lot to take in._

_Derek didn't speak much, just one word answers and half-hearted grunts when they tried talking to him. Nora was flitting around like a typical mom, asking him how he was feeling and if there was anything she could do. His father tried keeping things upbeat and light-hearted, and everyone played along, even though there was no belief behind any of it. Edwin and Lizzie tried helping, talking about everything but the accident or hockey or anything to relate to it._

_Casey stayed back however, leaving the room after a few minutes. Tears were streaming down her face by the time she got to the public washroom, and there she heaved up her entire day's worth of food._

_She shakily exited the stall to find her mom waiting sympathetically. Casey brushed past her to wash her hands and her mouth out, not meeting her gaze._

"_Case…" her mom began, and the familiar nickname broke her resolve._

_Casey began sobbing and her mom pulled her into a tight hug, tears falling from her eyes now too._

"_That in there isn't Derek! He's not the same guy. What if he's never the same? What if he's lost more than the use of his legs, what if he's lost himself? What if he never gets over this? What if he doesn't fight with me anymore? What if-" Casey broke off, crying too hard to continue. Seeing him so mournful and depressed, so opposite of the guy she had grown fond of over the years, was killing her. The thought of Derek not being Derek… well, it was just too awful to consider._

_It didn't dawn on her until later that she really did love Derek. That as much as he drove her nuts and could push her buttons like no other, in some ways, he was one of her best friends. That there was so much of his personality that she had taken for granted. She didn't want to lose what made him him along with him losing the ability to walk._

"_You should go see him. We all left and decided to talk to him separately. Seeing all of us at once wasn't very smart. He's overwhelmed enough. Lizzie and Edwin have already gone in, and George and I will go after you. Marti's with him right now, but I think it's best you see him alone."_

_Casey nodded in agreement. She headed down the hall after she cleaned herself up, looking in the window of the door to see Marti cuddled up to her big brother on the small bed. Derek was speaking softly to her, running his hand through her hair soothingly, as Marti nodded to whatever he was saying. She spotted Casey at the door and kissed Derek's hand since hugging him would disrupt the brace, and exited the room, casting a reassuring smile at her eldest step-sister._

_Casey attempted to smile back, and took a deep breath before heading inside on her own. Derek glanced up and seemed surprised to see her. Casey strode determinedly over to the bed._

_But when she was standing in front of him, his big brown vulnerable eyes staring back at her, she lost all thoughts of what to say. She simply stood there, and tried to form words._

_When she failed, Derek spoke. "Why did you leave?"_

_Casey seemed shocked by his question, but then again, Derek always liked confrontation. This time it was different though. He was curious and seemed a little hurt. All his emotions were right on the surface now. But even so, she had always been able to read him like a book._

_She bowed her head in defeat, tears slipping out now. She didn't want him to see them. They were supposed to act like they hated each other. All this honesty and crying and stuff, was not them._

"_I… I just…" she hiccupped, and Derek's eyes softened and he squeezed her hand in his, pulling her to sit on the side of the bed. Casey climbed right up and cuddled into him, crying and clinging to him like a life raft. The rest of the night was running through her mind now. The horror on his face, the absolute terror she felt when she saw his body flop to the ground like a rag doll. She honestly thought he was dead, even though people don't often die from tackling. She feared his brain would be damaged, or his heart would stop, or SOMETHING would be the end of him. But not this. This was almost harder, because she had to watch him live through the pain every day from now on. It was too much to bear to see him so raw and full of despair._

"_Case…" he attempted to soothe. "You know I don't do tears." he said, his voice suggesting a hint of amusement._

_Casey felt hope fill her. Derek Venturi teasing Casey McDonald? Maybe things weren't over. "You didn't push Marti away." she argued._

"_Marti's my sister. My baby sister. She's the exception to all my rules." Derek defended._

_Casey rolled her eyes, although her head was resting on his shoulder so he probably missed it. "I thought only Derek Venturi was the exception to all rules." she countered with a smirk._

_Derek chuckled. "Well for some things, all Venturi's apply. Even Edwin."_

"_Aren't me and Liz sort of Venturis by association?" Casey pressed._

_Derek didn't realize, but his fingers were running through her hair absent-mindedly, as affectionately as he did with his sister moments before. He also didn't realize then that the affection was definitely different than that of a sister._

"_Mm, Lizzie maybe. She's pretty awesome. You however? Nah, no way."_

"_Der-ek!" Casey squealed in irritation. They both sort of grinned at each other, the familiarity making both of them feel better about everything._

_A twinge in his back reminded him of the true situation. He felt his body sort of sink in to itself as the grief swam over him again._

"_I'm getting pretty tired. Do you mind sending my dad and Nora in so you guys can all head home and eat something? It's been a shitty day, but these meds are making me drowsy as hell and there's really no need for you guys to stay all night." he half-lied. Truly he just wanted to be alone for a while. He hadn't been properly alone in order to come to terms with everything since the accident and he'd appreciate the space. The doctors and nurses were in often enough to check on him, but he could ignore them. Coming face to face with his family made it all too… real. Too in his face. He just needed some time._

_Casey nodded and left, and while his parents were there, Derek tried to humour them with simple conversation. They let him know what the doctor told them about his recovery period and he nodded half-listening. There was so much changing already. He didn't like to think about the future. Because today's future compared to yesterday's future… just fucking sucked._

_Eventually Derek went to the rehabilitation centre, learning how to use a wheelchair, the limits of his condition, how to do the day-to-day things that were less simple now._

_Derek spent days staring at his room's ceiling, properly grieving. By the time he was ready to leave the centre, he was feeling a little stronger, but going home to find all that changed had been hard. But he found there was truth behind what his therapist had been saying. That being around his friends and family had grounded him, made him realize that not everything had to change._

_He knew his biggest support person was Casey, with Sam being a close second. But as much as he wished the whole ordeal had never happened, the one thing he did not regret was finding out who his true friends were, and his new more mature and friendly relationship with Casey._

_Not all change was bad. He just had to keep telling himself that._

* * *

Derek headed back to his room to find Casey curled up under the light blanket, hugging a pillow to herself. Her face was so serene while she slept. She looked beautiful.

He shook off the thought, annoyed at his own feelings. He lifted himself back onto the bed and tried to decide whether or not to wake her.

He leaned over to turn off his lamp and climbed under his covers. If she woke up and left of her own accord, that was fine. But by not waking her, he was letting her know that he didn't mind if she stayed or if she left. His silence was an acquiesce. She could do whichever she prefer.

And he couldn't have been happier when he woke up in the morning and she was still lying next to him.


	8. The Party

Hey beauties! SORRY, AGAIN for disappearing off the planet. I know, Ive actually become the worst for that. But here is the next chapter. Im hoping to get more writing in today before I have to work, so hopefully it will be sometime in the next week that I update again :)

Because of my absolute fail at updating, after this story is done, you probably wont be hearing from me for a while. I dont think Im going to post partially done stories anymore. It's just becoming too hard for me to keep up with the updates AND my busy life. Im not leaving fanfiction, or even going to another fandom necessarily, just not posting for a bit. Not until I fully write and finish a story, thennn Ill start posting it so I can give regular updates without too much chaos (:

Anyways this chapter is the party at Jasons that was mentioned before. Apologies for OOCness, as always, and that I made the girl in this sort offfff sound like a total skank. Again, sorry about that. It was to make things more awkward and (sorryy!) painful for Derek. Youll see what I mean. Also sorry for the lack of Dasey. Itll be picking up reaaaaally soon though ;)

Finally, ENJOY! Let me know of any mistakes and leave me wonderful reviews to brightennn my day and remind me why I dont deserve any of you !

Love you guys. Seriouslyyyyy.

**I DO NOT OWN LIFE WITH DEREK!**

* * *

**THE PARTY**

Weekend days always went by too fast, especially in comparison to school days. But Derek found that this Saturday went by much faster than usual. He almost was a little disappointed when it was time for the family to sit down to dinner, knowing an hour or so afterwards would be time for his welcome back party at Jason's. He was looking forward to it, glad to be settling into the new normal and all, but he found himself nervous for the night ahead. How different everything would be. Not that he would ever admit that of course.

After dinner of potatoes and meatloaf (none ended up in the ficus!) Derek headed upstairs to change and fix his hair. Fixing his hair consisted of him running his hands through it and checking himself out in the mirror. Styled 'natural' hair was a skill. One he thankfully possessed. He threw on a new t-shirt and headed down the hall to see how long Casey would be.

He found her hair piled in a messy bun on top of her head, wearing far too fitting yoga pants and a spandex tank, studying out of her French textbook. She was lying on her stomach, ankles crossed in the air, as she copied notes in the booklet beside her.

"I really hope you're not wearing that to the party." Derek commented from the doorway, feeling a touch of nostalgia as he remembered all the times he made fun of her from that very spot, usually leaning nonchalantly against the doorframe. Now he was sitting in his chair, still casual but missing the previous easy days once again.

Casey looked up. "I'm only driving you. I wasn't invited to the party."

Derek was silent for a moment, then proceeded to burst out laughing.

"Casey, Casey, Casey. It's _high school_. You don't have to be invited to the party. It's not a seven year old birthday party where you're only allowed to invite five friends. You just show up. No one's got a guest list at the door for crying out loud. Even if they did, just tell them you're my plus one. It's my party, and I'm inviting you." he told her, rolling his eyes at her innocence. He tried really hard not to find it adorable that she was so oblivious.

"You really want me to come?" she asked quietly, placing her pen down as she met his eyes shyly.

"Of course. Someone's got to be the DD. If you stay home you'll fall asleep at eight like the granny you secretly are." Derek said as he headed down the hall back to his room. She was a girl, and Casey, so she'd be a while getting ready.

"Der-ek! I am not!" was her whiney reply.

Derek just shook his head as he laughed.

* * *

The party was already in full swing by the time they arrived with Emily and Sam. Casey felt uneasy going but now it was more to do with the fact that the house was basically shaking from the volume and there were houses nearby. Jason lived in a rich neighbourhood, but there was quite a bit of space between houses, so they might be alright. But she was hoping to leave long before the noise complaints started.

It seemed like their entire high school showed up. The house was huge and very open inside, but was crammed with underage drunk teenagers from wall to wall. There was cheering going on in the kitchen where Casey could see some kind of upside down drinking going on from a beer keg. The dining room was filled with stumbling guys and their just as drunk girlfriends, a game of beer pong in full effect.

Jason was coming down the stairs when they entered, his girlfriend hanging off of his waist for support.

"Triple D has arrived everyone!" he shouted and everyone who could hear over the loud music cheered.

Derek grinned and clapped him on the back. "Some party! Thanks for the welcome back, man." he said casually, but really meant it.

"Can't have a team without a captain, dude. If nothing else it was an excuse for a fantastic party!" he shouted drunkenly, everyone cheering along to that statement too.

Derek laughed. "So… where's the liquor?" he asked with his mischievous smirk.

"I'll lead the way." Jason instructed, sloshing some of his own drink as he squeezed between people. Derek hesitated but people gradually got out of his way.

He glanced back to see Emily dragging Casey to the dance floor and Sam following Derek to the kitchen. He smiled gratefully at his best friend before loudly joining the others in the kitchen, all excited for his arrival.

* * *

A couple hours later, Derek sipped at his beer, laughing at the idiots who were playing some stupid game, which caused them to fall a lot. Derek hated to admit it, but he felt a flash of fear every time he saw someone lose their balance. Ever since the accident, he realized how fast things could change. How a simple thing could make everything complicated. He wouldn't want someone else to suffer the same or similar fate to him, or anything of the sort. He had grown more cautious. But he kept this to himself, knowing he would sound like Casey if he warned them to be careful.

Speaking of Casey he looked out through the arch that divided the kitchen and living room to see Casey dancing and laughing with Sam and Emily. She caught him looking and smiled and waved, turning back to their friends and swaying her hips expertly.

Derek started to head over to join them. They were on the outskirts of the dance floor enough that he could probably fit with them without being in the way, even though he could only dance from the waist up. But Jason clapped him on the shoulder before he could escape.

"D, Danielle's been undressing you with her eyes all night. Go talk to her. You're the guest of honour, so if you want a bedroom upstairs to yourself, go right ahead. Kick whatever horny animals are in there out on my orders and get your freak on."

Derek forced a laugh and thanked him, but felt uneasy. Not just at the last statement, but did Jason think that he could actually… do stuff? Did they forget why he was missing from school for so long?

He didn't have long to contemplate this since as he attempted to exit the kitchen, Danielle stepped in front of him.

"Hey D. Welcome back." she told him, sugary sweet, and delicately climbed on his lap to kiss his cheek in greeting.

"Thanks. You're looking beautiful as always." he flirted without thinking. She was Filipino, with dark hair and tanned skin. Her body was toned from surfing and rock climbing and adventurous sports like that, that still left her with a chest. She filled out a dress nicely, he'd say respectfully. Tonight she was only wearing a bandeau and see-through lacy tank top and a short black skirt.

"You know Derek, you've always been such a sweetheart. I was really hoping to run into you tonight. There's something I've been wanting to tell you." she admitted, biting her lip coyly.

"Oh yeah?" he replied. He hadn't spoken to Danielle much before, just flirted with her like the rest of the girls in high school, off and on. He couldn't imagine what she'd want to tell him.

She nodded then spontaneously threw her arms around his neck and kissed him hard on the mouth.

Not expecting it, he lost his balance slightly but regained it quickly, grabbing her waist to steady them as her lips moved eagerly against his. His body responded, his lips trying to find a rhythm with her passionate ones.

She pulled back to gasp for air, her eyes sparkling in excitement.

"Wow." was all he could think to say, more from the surprise than pleasure.

She assumed it was the latter and grinned. "There's more where that came from, baby. Let's take this upstairs." she whispered, letting her hand slide seductively down his chest to land on his crotch.

"Umm I can't." Derek told her, brushing a strand of hair back behind her ear and kissing her once on the lips in apology.

"Why not?" she asked, sounding hurt.

"Jason doesn't have a lift on his stairs. I can't even get up there." he said honestly.

Her face lit up. "Oh! Well that's easily fixed, silly. I'll help you limp up the stairs. I'll be your crutch." she added, like that was sexy somehow.

Derek's face scrunched in confusion. "Danielle, I can't move my legs. I can't 'limp' anywhere."

She still looked lost. "Oh. But you can still have sex, can't you?"

He blushed. "Um, not really. I can't feel my legs. The doctors aren't sure if I can… do that. Physically I don't know if I can get aroused."

"Doesn't look like it. I've been giving you a hand job this whole time and you haven't even noticed." she said irritably.

Derek looked down in shock to see her hand was now in his pants.

"Danielle!" he hissed, looking around to see everyone else oblivious. Regardless, he really wished she wouldn't molest him in public.

"What if I gave you a blowjob? Would that change things?" she asked, getting off his lap probably to kneel in front of him.

Derek threw his arms over his crotch to protect it from the crazy girl in front of him. "I'm sorry, Danielle. You're gorgeous and sexy as hell, but I don't think I can physically do what you want me to."

"Well I guess there goes my plan for the night." she said with a shrug, and with that she walked away to flirt with the next hockey player to cross her path.

Derek sat there alone, not really sure what he was feeling. Shock. Frustration. Anxiety. A swirl of emotions began crawling up his throat.

It wasn't that he wanted random sex with a girl he hardly knew or anything. Even before the accident, he believed in waiting for the right person. He may have kissed plenty of girls, dated many, and gone past second base with a couple, but he still believed sex was reserved for someone really special. But right now, he felt upset at the fact that he waited all this time, he _had_ had plenty of offers before tonight, and it was all for naught. He would never have sex with anyone, special or not.

He wheeled back to the main area, where all the dancing was going on, to see Casey being twirled by Sam, laughing and having a great time while Emily danced and flirted with someone from their Math class.

He passed the happy group and headed outside for some air.

There was some party goers getting high on the porch. One of them offered Derek a hit but he declined. He had never been one to do drugs. It wasn't Casey's influence or the parental lectures but Derek was smart enough to know better. He used to not want to mess up his game as hockey was his life. Now it was solely that he just had no interest; no interest in damaging his brain cells, relationships and life with something as unnecessary as getting high.

Derek found himself feeling more and more out of place at the party. He felt more… mature or something than these people now. He saw them as idiots to shake his head at, not laugh along with. Was this how Casey felt all the time?

Speak of the devil, a hand found his shoulder and he looked up to see her standing next to him in the dark night.

"Ready to head out?" she asked sympathetically.

He nodded. She wrapped an arm around him and squeezed, before releasing casually and heading back inside to grab Emily and Sam.

Derek looked up at the sky. Even the stars looked different tonight.

Everything was different now. He had to keep remembering that. He just didn't want to.


	9. Wake Up Call

Hello darlings,

Yes, I know I suck. Another month of no updates from me when I promised I'd update ASAP. I'm an epic fail. Don't listen to anything I say, basically haha. I'm sorry for the lack of updates. I've gotten very sick. The doctors aren't sure what is wrong with me yet, we're still going through tests, but between working and being ill, I haven't had a lot of energy to write.

HOWEVER, I am going on vacation in a couple weeks which will at least take away from the work time, so I'll have more opportunityyy to write. I plan on finishing writing this story in that time so that I can update regularly for you all that have stuck with me and this story :) I really can't thank you enough, you guys are awesome.

Anyways the last half of this chapter I wrote a long time ago, as it was the main scene that came into my head and inspired this entire story, so I hope you guys enjoy it. It is rather sad though, but I promiseeee after this, things will turn around and look up :) Derek is a fighter. And what Derek wants, Derek gets. But on a side note, because I wrote it a while ago, some things may be messed up, I read through it but I'm human and I miss things, so just let me know if you find anything :)

Happy readinggg!

**I DO NOT OWN LIFE WITH DEREK!**

* * *

**WAKE UP CALL**

Casey had been watching Derek carefully since the party. She knew something had gone on but he obviously didn't want to talk about it. He spent a lot of time in his room and when she came to help him with his homework, he seemed relatively normal, just a little down. She didn't want to push but she was worried about him. She hoped that he would come to her when he did need to talk, or that he had at least spoken to Sam about it.

Casey knew whatever it was still bothered him; especially when lunch at school on Tuesday took a bad turn.

Casey, Derek, Sam and Emily ate lunch as a group almost every day now. It was becoming the new norm. Everything was going as normal until they tried to make after school plans to study for the big math test coming up and Sam said he'd be late since he had hockey practice right after school.

"We have hockey practice today?" Derek asked, some of his mouthful of sandwich flopping onto his tray.

Everyone else sort of awkwardly glanced at each other, their faces growing sombre.

"Derek, _Sam_ has hockey practice. You… can't play as you are right now." Casey reminded him gently, before anyone else could jump in.

"Casey, I am fully aware that I don't have use of my legs. But the doctors said I wouldn't _necessarily _be like this forever. I can still come to practice and just work out in

the gym the whole time." he said, childish hope in his voice that only broke her heart further.

Sam lifted a hand underneath the table to silence Casey before she spoke again. "You might want to talk to coach about that, D. But you know the drill. Starts at 3:30 sharp."

"Thanks, Sam." Derek murmured, going back to his food.

He knew he couldn't play hockey anymore. That was painful enough. Hockey was where he felt alive, special, finally successful at something. Casey didn't understand; she was good at everything she tried. Derek was good at ONE thing: hockey. And he had that taken away from him. He wasn't going to give that up easily. And it wasn't just the game itself, it was the team-mates, the parties, the award ceremonies, everything he lived for. Who was he if he wasn't the charming athlete?

Derek's thoughts were interrupted by a call over the PA system. He was to meet Paul Greebie in his office. Oh joy, more therapy he didn't sign up for.

Without a word to the other three, Derek wheeled away, avoiding the stares from the other students as they watched him nosily. They had been doing it all day, it wasn't because of the announcement. He used to love being stared at, idolized, popular…now he wished he was invisible. He hated all of this attention.

Paul sat patiently in his office when Derek wheeled in. He ignored the saddening look of reality seep into the guidance counsellor's gaze. He hadn't seen him since before the accident.

"I don't need to talk about my feelings." was the first thing that spilled out of Derek's mouth.

Paul smiled a little. "Casey told me many times you don't 'do' feelings. I'm not here to talk about them, I'm sure you were grilled enough at the rehabilitation centre. I'm actually here to discuss your future."

Second least favourite topic, check.

"What about it? I know I've missed a lot of school but I will catch up. Casey's been helping me every day."

Paul's smile brightened subtly. "I'm glad to hear that. Your marks, however, are still borderline. I know you're still in your first week back, but as I am aware of your financial situation thanks to your step-sister, and as deadlines are approaching, the sooner I spoke with you the better. I don't want to pile any more stress on you than you already have, Derek, but you are planning on going to university, yes?"

He sighed. "Yes. I know my marks aren't that great but scouts are coming…" he trailed off, his eyes widening as realization hit him. He had not even considered what else he would lose along with his favourite sport.

Paul nodded desolately. "I know. I'm sorry, Derek. Not playing hockey in front of university coaches or scouts, and unable to tryout for their team, makes you ineligible for a hockey scholarship. Since your family cannot afford to pay for your university on their own, you may want to consider getting a higher paying job, or taking a year off to work."

"Who is going to hire me when I'm like this? What kind of job can I have? What's the point of going to university when I won't get hired anywhere because I don't have use of my legs?" Derek asked, his voice raising with each question as he felt his world tumbling around him. He hadn't thought about the future. He was too upset with the present. But now it was all hitting him so fast he could hardly breathe.

"Derek, there are plenty of other people in the world with a similar position to yours. There are many job opportunities out there that do not require working function below the hip region. We can discuss some you might be interested in if you'd like?"

Derek was faintly aware of answering, his tone still polite despite the chaos running circles in his brain. "No, I think I'll pass for today. I need some time to think. Thanks." And with that, he left the office, and headed to his next class, his mind a blurring whirl of fear.

So much for no feelings talk.

* * *

Derek didn't speak much to Casey on the way home. She was even more worried about him now. He had been distracted and silent since his meeting with Paul. She wondered what they talked about. Maybe Paul had given him a harsh reality check.

"How was school?" Nora asked brightly when they came inside. Casey smiled but Derek ignored the question.

"I'll be in my room. Call me when dinner's ready." he muttered. Casey saw his eyes shining more than usual. Something was really wrong.

The phone rang shortly after he disappeared upstairs. Casey answered, sad to find Derek's coach on the other end, knowing Sam must have said something to him since Derek had gone straight home rather than attempt to join the practice. She passed the phone to Derek who quickly shooed her out of his room. She waited patiently for the phone call to end, sitting on the edge of her bed chewing her lip. She knew it couldn't be good news.

He called her a few minutes later. She cautiously went to his door.

"Here. Emily called." was all he said, phone in hand, but his face was hard, his eyes almost black.

Bad news was apparently an understatement.

"Derek-"

"I want to be alone, Casey." he said harshly, turning away from her. She left quietly, feeling helpless.

Derek sat, fuming, looking around his room. His walls were littered with hockey posters, the hints of the female models behind them. Derek had to hide them ever since Casey's Feminist Manifesto. Derek would never be able to win over a girl like them anymore, or play hockey, or meet his hockey idols or become someone else's. His burning eyes scanned the records littering his walls. What kind of rock star would he be, sitting in a wheelchair? Who would want to be like him, look up to him, when they have to cast their eyes downward to even see him? All his hockey trophies blazing on display, his notebook filled with girls' phone numbers, it was all too much. Derek grasped the first hockey trophy he saw and threw it with all his might at the wall. It broke into several pieces, leaving a dent where it hit.

That made him feel powerful. He had felt so helpless since the accident.

In a blur of rage, Derek began picking up everything in sight and throwing it.

It wasn't fair! How come this had to happen to him? What was he supposed to do with his life? His career? Even just UNIVERSITY? He had depended on hockey for so long! How could he have been so stupid? It's so easy to get injured in that sport, maybe not this severely, but still! He should have been more like Casey! He should have spent less time playing hockey and tonsil hockey with every female, and more time hitting the books. He couldn't even get into university with his grades the way they were, and after missing so much time, he may not even be able to pass the year.

And how dare the coach kick him off the team like he meant nothing? Had he not brought them many championships? Been MVP for the entire season, and every season since he started? Was he not the youngest captain in two decades? Was he not the highest scorer in years? What did he do to deserve this treatment? Was he really just a valuable athlete to them, not a person? A friend?

The family heard the crashes and rushed to his room, worried he had hurt himself. But all they saw was his raw pain, his face screwed up in fury as he ripped the records off the walls, shredded every poster in his shaking hands, let the emotions consume him. Each member's eyes filled with tears. Little Marti watched her idol change into a monster. Edwin watched his strong brother break into fragile pieces. George truly saw the damage the accident had done and what really had changed the most.

He turned to move to a new destruction area when he caught sight of all of them crowded in his doorway, tears streaming down each of their faces. He couldn't take it anymore. His whole body began to shake.

Casey quickly shoved the rest of them out of there before running to him, throwing her arms around him as he began to sob uncontrollably.

She shushed him, soothingly stroking the hair at the nape of his neck as he gripped her body to him, his hold almost painful, as his own pain expelled out of him in short bursts.

Casey cried almost as hard as him, not knowing how else to handle watching the guy who always had the upper hand, always the best comeback, break into such a vulnerable, raw state.

She stayed wrapped in his arms for the rest of the night. He fell asleep holding her to him, not letting go. She snuggled into his chest, her tears still falling, remembering all his pain and how there was no way she could take it away and make it better.

It was going to time, and a lot of it, to get through this.


	10. Improvement

Hey guys! I know, youre shocked to see another update from me so soon ;)

Well here I am. I actually wanted to get this out sooner, since I had 3/4 done when I last posted, but that pesky last 1/4 was harder to break off than I thought. Im getting a better idea what to make of my next few chapters, so its a lot easier to write of course. Especially since Im currently on vacation from work :)

SO in this chapter, it features a song by Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus called Every Part of Me. Obviously I own none of it. I stumbled across it in my search for the perfect song, and I found it just fit with what Derek was feeling, so ta-da! I left the lyrics as they are since Casey is the one singing it.

For all those readers who find this story too depressing haha, this is where things start improving, hence the chapter name. So hang in there! The job search engine thing was something along the lines of CareerBeacon, for all those that are familiar with that. Something, again, I claim no ownership over. I think its just Canadian, but I could be wrong. Apologies if the lyrics format screws up. Right now its the only part that is centred and italicised, with each line separate, but it might jumble together and go to the side like it usually does when I try to do something similar.

Also, the Daseyness will up in the following chapter, by, well a lot ;) So get excited!

ANYWAYS Enjoy! :)

**I DO NOT OWN LIFE WITH DEREK!**

* * *

**IMPROVEMENT**

Since Derek's meltdown, the family had left him be, knowing this was something he had to deal with on his own. Everyone knew Nora was struggling with not going all motherly and brushing back his hair and asking him how he was, but she managed to resist.

Casey had quietly let Sam and Emily know what had happened when she had to cancel their study plans the day of. The pair of them too respectively left Derek to himself.

Casey, however, was never good at leaving Derek alone.

She had left him alone for a solid twenty-four hours. They had done the usual lunch with Sam and Emily but no one had spoken much, Derek being absolutely silent. But leaving him to himself that long, well, she really deserved a medal. She was trying to give him space or whatever he needed, but she didn't want him to hole himself up in his room forever and essentially turn into a zombie.

She knocked on his door determinedly.

"Go away, Casey." came his annoyed reply.

Casey opened the door and barged in regardless.

He sent her a look then proceeded to stare at the fascinating chipped ceiling paint. "Nice to know you're deaf…"

"How did you know it was me anyways?" she asked, closing the door and crawling to sit cross-legged at the end of his bed.

"Your knock, when you _do_ knock, is very distinct. I've heard it enough times to know its you. But besides that, who else would be bothering me?" he asked rhetorically, picking at his fingernails.

Casey found it sort of odd that he knew her knock. Or cute. She shook off the thoughts and kept to her plan.

"I was thinking… with everything you're going through… that maybe talking isn't what you want to do." she began slowly.

He raised his head to look at her, surprised. Casey was a firm believer in communication, thinking talking about feelings was the best way to solve any situation. "You've got that right."

She smiled a little. "But I do think that you need to express your feelings somehow…"

Derek closed his eyes. "Oh here we go…"

He felt her leave the bed and snapped his eyes open to see her lifting his guitar off the stand.

"So you're going to write a song. Or a full track list. Or you're just going to play songs you know. Because Der, you can't bottle all of this up. You will explode." she said matter-of-factly.

He stared at her. "You know I can't write decent songs. You hated my Battle of the Bands song. You made it all…girly." he said, shuddering at the ballad version she reprised.

She rolled her eyes. "I don't even have to be here. I just want you to try. Please?"

Derek took the guitar from her and strummed a few random chords, having not played his guitar in a while. He started tuning the low E string and smirked at her.

"There's no way you're getting out of this one. You're staying." he teased and she smiled brightly, not unhappy with that idea in the slightest.

Derek Venturi was making a comeback, and she wanted to be the first to see it.

* * *

By eight o'clock that night, there were crumpled wads of paper littering the floor of Derek's room, the sheets in front of him also full of pencil scratches and edits.

Casey was still by his side and singing the song for him since his vocals weren't, well, as good as hers, he'd say.

_I feel like I'm _

_A million miles away_

_From myself_

_More and more these days_

_I've been down_

_So many open roads_

_But they never lead me home_

_And now I just don't know_

_Who I really am_

_How it's gonna be_

_Is there something that I can't see?_

_I wanna understand_

_Chorus:_

_Maybe I will never be_

_Who I was before_

_Maybe I don't even know her anymore_

_Maybe who I am today_

_Ain't so far from yesterday_

_Can I find a way to be_

_Every part of me_

_So I'll try_

_Try to sort things out_

_And find myself_

_Get my feet back on the ground_

_It'll take time_

_But I know I'll be alright_

_Cuz nothing much has changed_

_On the inside_

_It's hard to figure out_

_How it's gonna be_

_Cuz I don't really know now_

_I wanna understand_

_Repeat Chorus_

_Bridge:_

_I don't wanna wait too long_

_To find out where I'm meant to belong_

_I've always wanted to be where I am today_

_But I never thought I'd feel this way_

_Repeat Chorus_

When Casey finished holding the last note and Derek's strum rang, they both sort of stopped and looked at each other in surprise.

"You know, that was really good." Casey said, sounding a little in awe.

"Yeah. It was." he replied in disbelief. He smiled. "We've always made a good team."

She giggled. "For disaster usually."

Derek chuckled in agreement. "But when we really try to work together, we're unstoppable." he reminded her, taking her hand and squeezing it.

She met his eyes and could see the gratitude written there. She knew he was feeling better already.

He broke their gaze but didn't let go of her hand. "So what now?"

Casey hummed as she pondered. "How about we get started on that English assignment?"

Derek groaned and she laughed.

"Or… we could just take the night off and hangout?" she suggested.

He grinned and pulled her into his side. "I knew I liked you for a reason."

Casey tried really hard not to blush.

* * *

After Casey went to bed, Derek found himself restless. They had mostly talked and joked about childhood things, like old cartoons and how fun it was growing up in the nineties. He had an arm around her the whole time and every time she giggled, she'd bury her face in his chest. He absolutely loved it, though he did his best not to show it.

Now she was gone and he was missing the warmth and comfort of having another body next to him. He lifted himself into his chair and wheeled over to his computer, ready to kill time by surfing the web for nothing of value.

But when he got there and clicked Google, he hesitated, seeing the job search engine ads along the sidebar. He bit his lip in concentration as he went to well known sites and clicked on London, Ontario to see the available opportunities.

Some of them caught his eye and reading through the expected tasks, he found himself getting excited. He quickly opened his old resume for Smelly Nelly's and started making changes and updating his information, opening another one for his cover letter and printing off the application from the site.

Derek didn't care that it was the wee hours of the morning and he was still typing away, scanning through more job ads and applying left right and centre. He was determined to get a good job. He wanted to provide for himself.

And what Derek wants, Derek gets.

* * *

Derek had difficulty getting out of the bed in the morning, but that wasn't that different from the norm. Mornings always were one of his weak points.

Casey helped drag him off to school as usual and he settled down in their history class, forcing his eyes to stay open.

Why did he share almost all of his classes as Casey anyways? Not that he was complaining, but all the teachers knew by now that the two didn't get along one bit. However he supposed now that had changed some. They still bickered like cat and dog though, just to keep things interesting.

Sam too was in this class and nudged at Derek before pulling him into a conversation about the game coming on later that night. Derek was too distracted to notice the teacher was passing back their essays from the week before.

He stopped talking when he saw the red mark at the top of his page. He blinked several times. The teacher noticed his pause and smiled.

"I was very impressed with your work, Derek. I knew you just needed to apply yourself. Keep it up." she told him as she continued making her way around the room.

Sam cocked his head at his best friend. "What'd you get?"

Normally Sam was respectful and waited for Derek to tell him, but that was because he knew if Derek failed he didn't want anyone to know. As much as he pretended he didn't care, Sam knew his friend better, and Derek didn't like failing at anything.

Derek lifted the paper and turned it to his friend in disbelief.

"I don't think I've ever seen that letter on anything of yours." Sam said in awe. He lowered his voice. "Did you switch yours and Casey's papers again?"

"No!" Derek exclaimed, exasperated. "I got this A- on my own, thank you very much."

Sam grinned. "Just checking. Nice work, man." he told him, putting his own B paper in his school bag.

Casey was hissing at Derek from a couple seats up. He looked up to see her eyes wide in question.

He rolled his eyes at her and held up his paper. She squealed in excitement, and then, noticing everyone staring at her like she grew three heads, turned back around, blushing furiously.

Derek laughed and shook his head, unable to stop the smile on his face from seeing one of his first successes since the accident. Maybe all change wasn't so bad.


	11. Motivation

Hey guys! I know I took forever to update, so basically never believe me when I say Ill be faster :P Anyways I just started university again for the first time in over a year, so Im trying to keep on top of things as best I can. I took a year off to work and am now back at it since I have money to pay for school again! Well... some. Schools expensive.

ANYWAYS this is the next chapter. Obviously. Things start moving forward for Derek, YAY! Dasey's getting thicker with tension. Things will be heating up soon enough ;) Well, while keeping things realistic. I did however make up the bursary stuff. I tried to look into it but it got complicated and I gave up haha. Everything was BS. So if anything, or everything is inaccurate I apologize. Send some advice on how to fix it? I would love you even more than I already do! ;) I have a friend who is diabetic and got a lot of money, so thats where I got the Derek-cousin thing. But as for paralyzed folk I have no idea the criteria or anything so let me know if you do!

MOVING ON I honestly have no idea how close to finishing this story is. It could be three more chapters, it could be thirteen. I reaaaaally dont know ahaha. But hang in there, I am going to finish this one, I promise! I do NOT leave stories unfinished. Even my PJO one that has been on hiatus for months because I've been determined to finish this one. After this is done, I will finish that and NOT PUBLISH ANYMORE UNFINISHED STORIES. Because seriously, I suck, and I apologize. Life eats me up and spits me up and then tries to chew on me some more most of the time. And writing takes a back seat, even though I love it.

SO this chapter... hmm... Some family stuff. Marti magic. Sam and Emily rolling their eyes. The usual drabble. But things will look up. This is mostly filler I suppose but it is moving things gradually forward. Everything takes baby steps. I planned on adding a wicked ending or cliffhanger, but felt it had been too long since I updated. So I just went with what I have had since I last updated. Lame huh? So apologies if it seems choppy or short, but let me know in a review!

Love you guys, so Ill shut up so you guys can readdddd, which was your intention, right? :)

ENJOY!

**I DO NOT OWN LIFE WITH DEREK!**

* * *

**MOTIVATION**

"No, Derek, we're putting it on the fridge! I don't care what you say!" Nora sing-songed at him the following weekend, wrestling him for his 92% math test.

"It was the highest mark in the class!" Casey piped up, unhelpfully in his opinion.

He sighed dramatically. "You guys need to give it a rest. Just because I'm working harder at school so I can actually pass the year, doesn't mean we need to broadcast all of my marks all over the place!" he told them stubbornly.

Thankfully Casey knew him better. She knew he was loving all of the positive attention. He had a new glow about him since he started doing better in school. Even now, he was trying to hide a smile as Nora moved the fridge contents all around so his was centered for everyone to see.

"Derek, we're just so proud of you. You've really come far after everything." Nora told him, moving forward to kiss him on the cheek, but he batted her away so she settled for patting his shoulder affectionately, her eyes beginning to glisten with pride.

"YEP so I'm going to go far now, literally. I'll be back later." he told them, wheeling up the ramp to get to the front door.

"Where are you heading on a Saturday morning? I thought physio was only in the evenings." George asked in confusion.

"I'm just going out. Be back in a while." he called, smirking mischievously before disappearing out of the door.

Casey started marching up the stairs.

"Now where are _you_ going?" George asked, not understanding teenagers in the slightest.

She sighed but kept walking. "I've seen that look before. I'm going to hide all of my hair products before I end up with blue hair again…" she explained, as if it was obvious.

Nora linked an arm through George's. "Don't bother trying to figure them out, Georgie. We never will."

He simply shrugged.

* * *

Derek rushed upstairs just over an hour later, as fast as the lift would take him. Then he wheeled excitedly down to Casey's room to find her sitting at her desk, picking through a list of some kind, various windows open on her computer.

She looked over when she heard him practically panting behind her from his overexertion. He was a lot more in shape now but he raced the entire way home, which was pretty far.

"What's up with you?" she asked amusedly, turning towards him to give him her full attention.

"I have exciting news!" he exclaimed, grinning giddily, looking much less like the usual cocky ladies man and more like a child on Christmas morning.

Casey's eyes lit up. If _Derek_ was this excited, it had to be something big.

"What?"

He was practically beaming now. "You are looking at the new front desk person for the downtown sports center! I do registration for classes, bill payments, answering the phone, give out any information, all that stuff! And it pays way better than Smelly Nelly's ever did!"

Casey jumped out of her chair and threw her arms around him, squealing excitedly.

"Derek! I knew you could do it! This is so exciting! We have to celebrate!"

She settled more comfortably in his lap and found his face inches from hers. "How do you propose we do that?" he asked quietly, hint of a smirk on his lips as he leaned closer to her.

Casey bit her lip nervously, trying not to show Derek how scared she really was. "Um… you could take me out to dinner?"

He sent her a look. "And why am I the one taking YOU out to dinner? We're celebrating ME getting a job."

She clicked her tongue at him. "Yeah, which means you'll be making far more money than jobless me, which means you should pay." she teased.

"Sorry _honey_, that's not how it works. I don't do chivalry."

"Well then… we could each pay for ourselves?" she suggested.

He mulled it over. "Here's an idea. You rent a couple movies, I'll pick up take-out." he compromised.

"So we'll have a little date night." she hummed happily.

She felt Derek stiffen beneath her, realizing her word choice must not be what he wanted to hear. She back-pedalled.

"Maybe we should invite Sam and Emily over for the movie too? I'm sure they'd want to celebrate with you."

He seemed to relax after that. "Yeah… that might be a good idea." he agreed half-heartedly. "So, what are you doing?" he said, changing the subject.

Casey looked back down at her list. "Trying to cut out which universities I shouldn't apply to. Mom says applying to fifteen schools is too expensive. Each application is between sixty to a hundred dollars."

"Wait, you have to PAY to apply to university?" he asked, flabbergasted.

She laughed. "Yes. You have to pay for them to look over your application and take the time to decide whether or not to admit you."

Derek supposed that made sense but it seemed like a steep price.

"Where are you thinking of applying?" he asked, seeing the long list.

"Well I wanted to apply somewhere close to home, in case I chicken out of living in res, which is why Western is on here. And Queens would be really great, but also really hard to get in to. It's like the Ivy League of Canada. And, well, York University. McGill, although I'm really unsure about that one since it's in Montreal. And of course U of T."

Derek nodded. "Montreal's drivers are insane. You'd have to have a bodyguard to walk the streets what with your clumsiness." he teased. She whacked him with her day planner.

"Well then maybe I'll apply to UBC after all."

Derek shrugged. "Whatever you think is best for you."

"What about you? Have you thought at all where you want to apply?" she asked him cautiously, knowing the future was a sensitive subject for Derek.

He exhaled. "Yeah, a little. I really should get on that, applications will be due soon. Although even if I do start work soon, I don't know how I'll be able to afford tuition AND housing with no scholarship."

Casey smiled sympathetically at him. "You know Derek, I looked into it, and you can get bursaries for being disabled. And a lot of the time, they're pretty big. You'll have to write them a letter of what happened to you but it could take a big chunk off of your cost. It'd definitely be worth a try."

"They have bursaries for that?" he asked, surprised. He really didn't know much about the university stuff. That was Keener Casey's job.

She nodded. "Yeah. Like if I get a scholarship for academics, I'll have to keep my marks at a certain level. You, however, will just get a bursary and that will be that."

He sat in silence, shocked by this discovery. He had never even considered that he could get a scholarship for something other than sports or academics. But he remembered now that his cousin had gotten a bursary for being diabetic, and it was about half of their tuition.

Casey was watching his face change amusedly. "You know, I've got some time. We could look into some programs now if you want?"

Derek grinned. "Let's do it."

Suddenly the future didn't seem so bad.

* * *

When Derek told the rest of the family that he got a new job, they all wanted to join in celebration, so George went out and picked up Derek's favourite, Chinese food. It ended up being one of the most upbeat dinners they had had in a long time. There was a lot of chatting and laughing among the family members.

Derek and Casey of course spent half the meal throwing chicken fried rice at each other, while Edwin and Lizzie snickered at their parents attempts to intervene, and Marti opened everyone's fortune cookies for them and started to read them out loud above all the chaos.

"SMEREK! THE ONE YOU LOVE IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK!" Marti shouted over all of the noise. Everyone gradually stopped chattering as they looked at her in surprise, not understanding at the best of times what Marti was doing, but the random quote definitely caught them off guard this time.

"Casey." Marti continued, speaking at a much more normal volume now that everyone had quieted down. "This ones for you. It says: Love is like wildflowers. It is often found in the most unlikely places."

Marti continued on with the rest of the family, while Derek and Casey avoided each other's eyes. Nora had: _Ideas are like children; there are none so wonderful as your own_; George: _It takes more than good memory to have good memories_; Edwin: _Make two grins grow where there was only a grouch before_; Lizzie: _Fame, riches and romance are yours for the asking_; Marti: _You find beauty in ordinary things_.

"Well, uh, thanks for dinner. Sam and Emily are coming over, we're going to watch some movies." Derek said awkwardly, before wheeling backwards out of his place at the table, putting his dishes on his lap and heading towards the kitchen.

Casey picked up her own and headed in the same direction, although didn't speak to Derek, even when he started the water and some splashed off of his plate onto her shirt.

She loved Marti like a sister now, but couldn't help wishing she had picked a different fortune cookie for her. She knew fortune cookies were mostly for fun, at least for those not in the Chinese culture, but after earlier, she didn't need Derek thinking she was in love with him or anything. Because that would be _crazy_… right?

* * *

Sam and Emily thankfully came over before long and broke the awkward tension. Derek and Casey went back to bickering over which movie they should watch first while Emily and Sam rolled their eyes and made themselves busy getting the food ready since the hosts were preoccupied.

Emily peered through the gap in the kitchen doors to see Casey losing a tickle fight to Derek, again.

"They're getting too obvious." Sam commented amusedly, noticing her distraction as he pulled cans of pop out of the fridge.

Emily looked over at him in surprise.

"With their feelings for each other. They must be realizing it now that they're friends."

She smiled. "I figured that's why they fought it for so long. They knew they couldn't fight their feelings if they let themselves like each other."

Sam chuckled. "Now they can't keep their hands off of each other. Although they were never that good to begin with."

Emily laughed. "Tell me about it. I always feel awkward being around during one of their fights, because I'm just waiting for them to tear off each others clothes and go to it."

"They better get together soon. This has been going on for too long." Sam said seriously, looking out to see the light in both friends' eyes.


	12. Loyalty

Soooooo its been almost two months since I updated. So so SO sorry about that. Schools been eating me uppppp. Silly science courses. Anyways, not really a fan of this chapter, it's sort of depressing, which is strange considering I was in a great mood when I wrote it.

ANYWAYS I got a message from Leibeezer telling me to update, and although I planned on updating by the weekend at the latest, I thought it was time to get my butt in gear, put aside school work for five minutes, and get to writing.

Like I mentioned before, not sure how long this story will be. This chapter got away from me. This was NOT what I had planned at all, it just kind of wrote itself. Not a big fan myself, but let me know how you feel :)

You've all been so great. Your reviews and favorites and alerts and whatnot make me so so happy :) I love getting feedback from all of you and I hope you continue enjoying the story.

Just a side note, the game I mentioned is based off of the game Burnout Dominator, if anyone's ever played that. I'm a big fan of it myself. I'm super competetive somehow when it comes to racing video games and I just thought some Sam-Emily-Dasey friendship fluff would be fun to write. We're getting closer to Dasey as well, so bear with me. The jump to Dasey has to be done CAREFULLY as it always is when it's me haha. I don't like to rush things. I want it to be perfect.

Next chapter, fingers crossed, will be Derek's birthday ;)

**I DO NOT OWN LIFE WITH DEREK!**

* * *

**LOYALTY**

"No, no, no, nooooooo!" Derek shouted in aggravation as he got annihilated by Emily's yellow mustang and thrown into heavy traffic.

They were playingon PlayStation2, some made-for-boys-who-like-explosions-and-cars-and-testosterone racing game. It was set with city tracks and gave points for narrowly avoiding other regular cars, causing your opponents to crash and going at ridiculously high speed without hitting anything. If you crashed, you could use your boost to explode your car so that your opponents went down too, and could receive extra points for drifting and getting air.

"Sucker." Emily teased, drifting around the sharp turn like a pro. She was easily the best at this game, despite the amount of times the boys had played it over the years.

"How did you get good at this game?" Sam asked in disbelief.

"I have a little brother." she said as if it was obvious.

Casey shrugged. "I have one too but I still suck."

Emily passed Casey the controller for her turn, offering a sympathetic smile. She didn't know how else to describe it. Natural ability at racing games? Nimble hands? Unconscious technique? She just had a lot of practice from Dimi begging her to play all the time. It was the only thing that shut him up when she was babysitting, so they played. A LOT.

Derek smirked at his step-sister. "Well don't blame the game, sweetie."

Casey sent him an irritated look. He simply smiled overly-happily back.

"Alright, enough of this. Two on two. Boys vs. Girls." Emily suggested before Casey and Derek could get into it.

Derek met Sam's eyes. They both grinned.

"Oh it's on!" Sam shouted, grabbing a controller and high-fiving his long time best friend.

Safe to say they got pretty loud and animated in the battle. Sam was on his feet at one point, and if it hadn't been for the accident, Derek would have been standing and swaying right next to him, moving in sync with the car on the screen.

Casey giggled into Emily at the boys' actions but loudly joined in the jeering and overenthusiastic commentary about the going-ons onscreen.

"Shunt him, Em, shunt him!" "You call that a takedown? Just wait!"

"Damn it Casey, I was on my third boost!"

"THAT'S RIGHT BITCHES, BURNNNNNNNNNNN!"

Everyone looked at Derek for that one. He laughed nervously.

"What… It's the only good thing about crashing… when you blow everyone else up…"

The others shook their head amusedly.

After a lot more yelling, until Nora and George came upstairs to tell them to keep it down or stop completely, they decided to end the night on the high note.

"Man, great night D. Congrats on the job again." Sam said, clapping him on the shoulder and fist bumping him at the door.

"Yeah, we're all really excited for you. And hey, maybe now you'll actually pay for the pizza once and a while." Emily teased, causing Derek to laugh and pull her into a quick friendly hug.

"Yeah, yeah. We'll all hangout again soon. Maybe even go _out _somewhere?" He faked-astonishment at the idea.

Casey ruffled his hair, shoving his head down playfully to shut him up.

"Don't mind the idiot. Thanks for coming guys. See you Monday." Casey said, trying not to laugh as Derek tickled her side as she attempted to close the front door behind their friends.

Sam and Emily waved them off, sharing a knowing glance between them before heading in their separate directions.

Casey immediately went over to start tidying up the living room. Derek followed suit, coiling the wires around the controllers and placing them back in the cupboard. His companion smiled; the accident really had changed a lot. A few months ago, Derek would've walked away without a thought, despite his involvement in said mess. He'd call out some snarky comment to Casey and then cackle away up the stairs, leaving her to deal with it all.

"What are you so smiley about?" Derek asked her curiously, wheeling over to help her gather the garbage off the coffee table. Sam and Emily had brought food over to help celebrate.

Casey chuckled. "Nothing, nothing."

Derek knew he'd never understand the female mind.

Once satisfied with the state of the living room, both teens headed upstairs. Casey walked alongside Derek on the lift, oddly quiet despite the night.

"So what are we going to do now?" Derek asked her, looking up at her hopefully.

She bit her lip, thinking hard. They'd already watched movies, played video games… she could think of another activity to do but she blushed upon the thought.

Unfortunately, Derek noticed.

"What?" he asked with a laugh.

She shook her head, her voice going squeaky. "What? Nothing! Nothing."

Derek's mouth fell open. "You were thinking something dirty weren't you! I know you're only hanging out with me for my irresistible body…" he teased, puffing out his chest.

Casey turned red, making her look incredibly guilty. "I was not! And I am not!"

"Alright fine, but you were the one imagining us making out…" he continued as he rolled down the hall ahead of her.

She smacked him in the shoulder, but blushed harder since that was _exactly_ what she was thinking.

"You're delusional." she argued pathetically.

Derek suddenly grabbed her hand and pulled her backwards over the arm of his chair, so she was lying in his lap.

"Am I?" he asked quietly as her breath shortened at their close proximity and in surprise.

She didn't speak, just stared up at him, breathing hard. His hand reached out to brush her hair off her cheek. His eyes looked different than she had seen them. Softer. More tender? She had to be imagining things, right?

They had arrived at his room and Casey swallowed, realizing she should probably get off his lap now. But Derek simply opened the door and continued to look at her in that strange new way. She just continued their staring match, her mind racing as to what was going to happen. What he meant by any of this.

The door closed. Casey inhaled. Exhaled. Everything was so quiet.

He still hadn't said a word.

"Derek?" she whispered, her own hand reaching up to caress his face.

He closed his eyes, but his expression was pained. He gently lifted her and she got the message. She quickly got off of his lap.

"Let's just hangout and listen to music or whatever." he muttered, wheeling to his bed, and she understood that whatever just happened, or almost happened, was a closed subject.

* * *

Casey struggled to yank her science textbook out of the bottom of her and Emily's shared locker. They hadn't needed to share this year but it worked for them and it saved going to two lockers between breaks since they stuck together like glue.

"Hey Casey." Emily greeted, amusedly watching her best friend lose her balance from her crouched position and fall on her butt.

Casey looked rather disgruntled. "Hey Em. Have a good weekend?" she asked, not sounding very enthusiastic as she straightened herself out.

"Yeah, it was alright. My cousins came over yesterday so you can imagine how fun that was. I tried to hide in my room and do math homework. To ESCAPE." Emily explained, shuddering in memory at the high-pitched crying of her baby cousin and the screeching of the other two young ones.

Casey half-smiled, looking through her bag, obviously distracted. "Hmm math. Right after lunch."

Emily cocked her head at her friend. "Case, are you even listening? Is everything okay?"

Derek chose that moment to roll by on his way to his next class. He saluted Emily and then his face looked half-nervous/half-guilty as he didn't make any inclination that he had seen his step-sister standing with her best friend. Old Derek purposely ignored Casey all the time. But new Derek was different. He always stopped to chat or at least said something as he went by, smiled even.

Something obviously was up. Once he was out of earshot, Emily dove right in.

"So what happened between you and Derek? Did you kiss already?" she asked nonchalantly and Casey's eyes became as wide as saucers.

"EMILY! SHHHHHHH!" she hissed loudly, probably making more noise than her with her shushing.

Emily smiled slyly. "Oh come on, you guys have been in denial since before the accident. Just admit it."

Casey looked down in shame. She took a few deep breaths before she spoke. "We didn't kiss. But we almost did." she whispered sadly.

Emily was confused. She rubbed her friend's arm. "Casey, that's a GOOD thing. Why do you look so sad? It's okay. I mean, I know Derek can be an idiot sometimes, but you of all people know how good of a guy he really is, he just puts on a front-"

She shook her head. "It's not that. It's just… we keep having these moments. Where I think he's going to kiss me or tell me that he feels something more, but right before he does he pulls away. Changes the subject. Makes an excuse and leaves. I don't think he _does_ like me that way. I think he's just vulnerable and now that we're friends he's confused."

"Casey, Derek definitely does not think of you as just a friend." Emily reassured her.

"As a sister then. Even better." Casey said bitterly, reminding her friend of their legal situation.

Emily sighed. "Casey, you guys met when you were sexually-charged fifteen year olds. The fact that you haven't jumped each others bones purely on your attraction is a mystery, let alone when you guys fell in love with each other. Now that Derek's…condition is as it is… you guys lost a lot of pressure of putting up the I-hate-you attitude. You let yourself become friends. Just give it time. Derek's not good at feelings."

"I think there's something else to it. Like he's mad at me or something. For pushing him. For pushing our friendship to be something more. He's been avoiding me since Saturday night. That was probably the closest we've come and now he's doing whatever he can to get away from me…"

Emily remembered the brief awkwardness from earlier.

"…Like this morning. He said he was getting a ride with Sam and took off without even eating breakfast."

Emily chuckled. "Case, that's not that weird. Maybe Sam wanted to talk to him."

Casey shook her head, a sad smile on her lips, wishing it could be such a simple answer, that she wasn't so paranoid. "Well first off, Sam's family has a car. No room for his wheelchair to be strapped in."

"Well….maybe he just lifted himself into the passenger seat and put his chair in the back. Sam could've helped him." Emily suggested.

"Not likely. It's not safe to travel that way for Derek."

Emily bit her lip, trying to find another loophole.

"Secondly, Sam had a doctor's appointment first thing this morning. He wasn't in class. But Derek was. When Sam came in near the end, I knew Derek was sending me a message. He would've known about Sam's doctors appointment. That he wouldn't be there and that I would know he lied to me. Derek's an expert liar. He knows exactly how to lie to achieve a certain message. And the message was loud and clear: _I'm avoiding you_."

Emily gazed sadly at her best friend's heartbroken face. She really felt bad for her. Casey had such a big heart and loved with every inch of it. She knew this was a big thing for Casey, finally admitting she had feelings for her step-brother that she claimed to hate for so many years, and to have him reject her like this? Unfair.

Emily felt a surge of protectiveness. She was going to talk to Derek.

And he was going to damn well listen to what she had to say to him.


	13. Mediator

Did you all just die of shock? I updated only a few days after my last update. ME! Craziness.

Anyways, goes without saying that you guys are FANTASTIC and your reviews alwaysss make my day :) I am going to try to write as much as I can this weekend so I can keep up this regular updating thing ! I like it much better than having a month or more of guilt following me everyday, knowing I suck at updating.

I know some of you writers out there are fabulous and manage to update multiple stories on a regular basis and all the power to ya! I'm just not one of those sadly. You guys are with me every step of the way with my writing, as of right now as I update with this chapter, I literally having nothing else written for the rest of this story. I start from scratch each time, which when you're as particular and precise as me when it comes to writing, it takes me a while to get around to the finished product. BUT I am going to try to put more effort into making time for writing. I work thirty hours plus a week, add to that being a full time student and taking care of my family and seeing friends and my life gets pretty busy like everyones. THE GOOD THING about starting from nothing at the beginning of each chapter is if you guys offer any advice or good ideas I can incorporate them into the next chapter. I do have a rough sketch of my future chapters, I'm not completely starting from nothing I suppose, but I have nothing concrete written I should say.

ANYWAYS Why am I rambling about nothing ?

SO I know I said this chapter would be Derek's birthday. Yeah. It's not. Sorry. I'm a jerk. BUT next chapter definitely is. I just let my writing run away from me agaaaaaain. We introduce a new character, Jake. Where he came from, heck I dont know, but I like him. I wanted to show that Derek's only friends aren't Casey, Sam and Emily. Because of the party, I feel like I made it seem as though Derek was isolated from everyone because of his 'lifechanging event' and blah blah blah. He still had some decent friends before the accident. He wasn't this party-hard ladies man that only drank with his buds and without hockey he was nobody. He needs a few friends to stick around so that he is reminded that his personality was what was popular, not his ability to walk.

Don't mind my psychological perspective. But I always want to make things as real for my characters and my story as I can. I have to grab at pieces later to pull it all together for a proper conclusion so that's why I'm going on and on and onnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.

Soooo this chapter is another filler but Derek at least stops being such an idiot for five minutes. Don't ask why out of the blue Sam and Emily keep getting together in my stories when they never did before. My last two I have them become a couple. I don't know why. I always hate in stories how everyone pairs off perfectly and it's all so honeymoon la la land, but it just seemed to fit so I went with it. Just like last time. I don't think they'd be BAD together or anything, but yeah.

ANYWAYS ENJOY!

**I DO NOT OWN LIFE WITH DEREK!**

* * *

**MEDIATOR**

Emily waited patiently at lunch outside of what she thought was Derek's class. Sam came out and looked surprised to see her waiting there.

"Em? What are you doing?" he asked amusedly as she tried to look around him to spot Derek in the crowd of students leaving the history room.

"Is Derek in there?" she asked, pushing on his shoulders to raise herself a little higher.

Sam chuckled. Emily's random craziness was always a treat. "No, he got called out early to talk to Paul again."

Emily harrumphed. "Dang it. I need to give him an earful." she explained as she walked side by side with Sam.

"About what? Casey?" Sam assumed, seeing as that was one of the only things she and Derek had in common.

"Yes! He's avoiding her like she's diseased and all because he is afraid of his feelings for her! Casey's heartbroken and thinks he's rejecting her. He needs to be a man and go tell her he loves her already."

Sam nodded. "I know. But I think there's something more to it. He's hiding something. I've known Derek long enough that I can read him like a book, even when he doesn't say a word. But I think the only one who can worm that out of him will be Casey. Casey may be upset right now, but knowing the two of them, they'll get in each other's face really soon and the truth will come out one way or another." he reassured her.

Emily sighed. "Man, Matchmaker Emily was going to make a comeback."

"Who calls you 'Matchmaker Emily'? And what comeback?" Sam asked with a laugh.

"Okay, so, no one does. And this _would _be my first success… But they totally would call me that if I finally got Derek and Casey together!" Emily said cheerfully, clasping her hands together in excitement.

Sam rolled his eyes. "I'm pretty sure everyone's been making bets on them for years."

The bell rang.

"Lunch time. Perfect time for us to interrogate the idiots."

* * *

Derek was already in line, but no Casey in sight. He stubbornly went to the food line before realizing slowly that he had no aid for getting his food. He groaned in annoyance. He had to stop avoiding her. It was just getting stupid. And she knew something was up. She hadn't done anything wrong but knowing her, she would blame herself. He made to move out of the line but he heard a familiar voice.

"Hey D, need some help?" one of his hockey buddies Jake asked, stepping out from his place behind him and standing next to him. "We've got pizza, pizza or pizza on the menu today." he said with a raised eyebrow.

Derek smirked. "What a tough choice."

Jake chuckled. "Okay, well, maybe we also have tuna casserole and Greek salad, but I figured you'd go for the pizza."

"Smart dude." Derek agreed, nodding his head in thanks when Jake deposited the plate on his tray along with a bottle of coke and a bag of ketchup chips. Derek sighed a little. "Is there anything healthy up there? Like an apple or something? Casey will ring my neck if I only eat junk for lunch and I'd rather save the headache."

Jake snatched him some carrot sticks and dip and a banana.

"Thanks man. I appreciate it."

"No problem. Speaking of Casey, doesn't she normally get your food? I mean, nagging you the whole time on healthy eating habits but still…" Jake trailed off, not sure which way to go about it. On the one side, Derek spent ninety percent of the time before the accident complaining about Casey McDonald. On the other side, since the accident they had basically been attached at the hip. Jake was glad that the step-siblings weren't fighting like they were before, but he didn't know if Derek wanted people to see that. Think he was going 'soft' or something. Jake was perceptive in some of the ways Sam was. He knew that Derek liked to put up a front. As his friend, he just happened to be able to see right through it. But he wanted Derek to feel like his defence mechanism was still working so he played along where he could.

Derek sighed at his words however. He and Jake got along great. The guy was funny and social and always had your back. He had been one of the few of his old friends that had visited him at the hospital and still called him up regularly to hangout and chilled with him at school. He was a true friend and probably the person besides Sam and Casey that Derek was closest to nowadays. He felt being honest was his only option.

"She normally is. But… well… we're sort of fighting right now. I guess that's what you'd call it. I'm avoiding her. Something almost happened and… she didn't really do anything _wrong_ exactly…" He was rambling, he knew, but he hadn't told anyone any of this. Not even Sam.

"So what's the problem then?" Jake asked carefully.

Derek pondered that for a moment then lifted his gaze to meet his friend's eyes. "She's Casey."

Jake understood immediately what Derek was saying. He wasn't saying that if things had happened, it wasn't a problem because he and she fought all the time. Or that she was his step-sister. The problem was that Derek's view of Casey, of what she deserved, was getting in the way of whatever it is that almost happened. And Jake had a pretty good idea what that something might have been.

He gave his friend a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. "D, you can't run forever. Talk to her. I guarantee you she has similar feelings going on about you. She wants to talk to you about it. And she thinks the world of you, if you hadn't noticed." he told him honestly.

Derek stared, tray still in his lap, trying to process his friend's words and wondering how in the hell he was so obvious about everything. I mean, did EVERYBODY know he was in love with Casey? Apparently.

"She's waiting for you. GO." Jake encouraged, shooing him off like a misbehaving puppy.

Derek smiled a little in thanks and headed over to the table that held solely Casey. Sam and Emily must be lagging behind.

He was glad for the time alone with her though. He wheeled up to the table and she looked up in surprise.

"This seat taken?" he asked with his usual playful smirk.

She simply blinked at him, looking confused, before nodding silently and turning back to reading the book in her lap.

Derek sighed. He knew she wouldn't make this easy on him. And why would she? He had been acting like a moron. More so than usual.

"Casey…" he began.

She flipped a page so aggressively a tiny rip appeared at the bottom.

"Look, I'm sorry I've been acting weird. I just want you to know it's nothing you did. I was hoping we could talk… maybe at home later?" he asked hopefully.

Casey regarded him carefully, like she was reading his mind and checking to see if he meant what he said. "Fine."

He picked up his pizza and chewed thoughtfully. It wasn't much but at least she closed her book.

"Could you have picked an unhealthier lunch?" she finally asked irritably with a roll of her eyes, regarding his meal.

He tried not to laugh. He knew her so well it was ridiculous. "I got carrots and dip AND a banana."

"But look at this!" she exclaimed, shaking his chip bag at him and nudging the coke with it. "Pizza, chips and pop? You should have grabbed water at the _very_ least."

"I didn't feel like water. Jake cuts me more slack. Maybe I should let him pick my lunches from now on." he threatened playfully.

She raised her eyebrows at him then swivelled around to see Jake watching them amusedly. She sent him a look, the bag still in hand, like 'what were you thinking, unleashing the junk monster'? He shook his head, laughing silently at her, and she couldn't help smiling back at him. She knew Jake was a decent guy, like Sam. He probably encouraged Derek to get his shit together and apologize.

She turned back around. "I'll be having words with him later then."

Derek snatched his chips back, crackled open the bag and threw one at her.

"Der-ek!" she screeched, and about twenty people in the room rolled their eyes.

Sam and Emily included. They sat down beside their two best friends, Emily sending Sam a dissatisfied look. She really wanted to chew Derek out about being a dick to Casey, but it looked like Casey had already forgiven him.

"What took you guys so long?" Derek asked suspiciously, finally spotting the newcomers.

"We had to go to my locker first." Sam explained.

"Since when do you two hangout between classes?" Derek continued, reading Casey's mind.

Both teens blushed. "Well… we, um, had to talk about…. Uh, a school project…" Sam began lamely.

"Since now, alright? It's allowed. You guys spend almost all of your time together and you fight like cat and dog. We're allowed to be friends what with us all hanging out now even." Emily finished much more confidently.

Derek stifled a laugh at how Emily was better at wearing the pants in their relationship than Sam, but he did his best to keep it in. Sam would do the same for him. It just wasn't cool to salt your best friend's game in front of the girl he apparently liked.

"So D, your birthday's really soon. Thought about what you want?" Sam asked, effectively changing the awkward subject.

Derek didn't mean to, but blurted out the first thing that came to his mind. "To walk again might be nice." he said bitterly.

Everyone became suddenly fascinated with what they were eating. Casey was the only one who held his gaze, looking sympathetic but reminding him his inappropriateness.

He realized his slip and how awkward he made everyone feel. It wasn't his intention to make anyone feel bad. "Or, you know, the new White Stripes album…" he corrected hastily.

"That one's on you guys. I already got your present." Casey said matter-of-factly, gathering her garbage so she could dispose of her tray.

Derek was surprised. His birthday _was _only a couple days away so of course Keener Casey would have shopped ahead of time. But he had sort of forgot about his birthday what with all that was going on; and with all the time they had been spending together he wondered when she picked it up.

"What'd ya get me?" Derek asked hopefully, knowing full well she wouldn't answer.

She smiled slyly. "Oh I've been planning it for a while. But I guarantee it will be the best birthday gift ever. I just have to work out the last details and it will be perfect." she said before taking her tray to its proper place.

Derek was stumped. What on earth could be that great? Casey seemed rather confident in her idea and he had no idea what sort of hints he could have dropped that would've resulted in such a fantastic birthday gift.

He'd find out soon enough.


	14. Surprises

Bet you didn't expect ANOTHER update this fast did you? Craziness I know. I told you I'd try to be better!

I had an unexpected series of days off and actually had time to write! YAY! Now maybe I won't fail at updating for at least the next few weeks.

Speaking of which, if anyone read my A/N last update (I totaaally understand if you skip my rambles) I mentioned something about other authors updating a lot. After a review, I reread it and realized it came off as kind of snarky and that was definitely NOT my intention. For all of you wonderful writers out there who update regularly, I really mean it, thats great! All the power to you! I didn't mean for it to come off as spiteful, I just wanted to further explain why I suck so much, not knock down other accomplished writers. I'm jealous for sure that other authors can update so regularly while I fail miserably, but I would never want to seem petty or mean. After ZenNoMai left a review the chapter before, I felt I should further explain myself, but then last chapter ZenNoMai left another and thats when I realized that I sounded like a huge jerk! And I honestly did not mean to. So I apologize for the unintentional jab, especially since ZenNoMai is one of my regular reviewers :) And I absolutely adore ALL of my reviewers (and readers!)

ANYWAYS on to the fun stuff. This was probably my favourite chapter to write :D I've been planning it for months and it felt good to finally put it on paper. The big gift mentioned was on Degrassi TNG in the earlier seasons for anyone who has watched that. Ever since I saw that, alllll those years ago, I wanted to write a story on paraplegia so I could include that. But I seized the opportunity in this story for obvious reasons and TA-DA! There you have it. I'm not exactly sure on the functionality of it or if they even exist in real life so I improvised a bit. If you have any insight or better suggestions, I am ALL ears. I accept flames and any constructive criticism/advice that I can get :) !

Also I know a bunch of you were looking forward to Casey and Derek's conversation. It WAS supposed to be this chapter but then I wanted to include a special Smarti-Smerek gift so I added that and then it was already a longer chapter than usual by a few pages so I decided that the excitement would have to wait until next chapter. You find out why Derek's being such a silly goose and thennnn more excitement to follow ;)

I'm really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this and the next chapter :)

Know whats funny? (not actually funny...) I planned on making my A/Ns a lot shorter. FAIL. Sorry about that.

YOU'RE ALL FABULOUS! LOVE YA!

**I DO NOT OWN LIFE WITH DEREK!**

* * *

**SURPRISES**

Derek woke on the day of his birthday, feeling strangely well rested and peeked open an eye, waiting for the ambush. Normally on his birthday, he demanded presents as soon as he woke up. Last year, his siblings were crowded around his bed when he awoke.

Now he was faced with just one sibling: Marti. She grinned when she saw her favourite big brother was finally awake.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY SMEREK!" she shouted excitedly, leaping on top of him in a hug.

He laughed at her enthusiasm and hugged his baby sister back happily. She was the best wake up he could ask for.

"Thanks Smarti. Where's everyone else?" he asked as he ruffled her hair.

"Downstairs. They wanted to let you sleep but I couldn't wait any longer to give you your present!"

He smiled. "Well I'm all ready. Where is it?"

"You have to close your eyes first. I want it to be a surprise." she said sternly, sounding more like a school teacher than a nine year old.

"Of course." he agreed readily, closing his eyes, trying not to smile. He really loved his sister.

"I had some help from everybody… but it was mostly me. It was _my _idea." Marti said proudly.

He felt the bed compress as she climbed back on.

"Okay, open your eyes!" she exclaimed.

Derek opened his eyes, adjusting to the light momentarily and seeing a rather large object held in his sister's small hands. It was one of those linked collection of picture frame things. They were all facing either length-wise or vertically, displaying pictures over the years of Derek and various friends, Sam and of course the family. In each one, Derek looked extremely happy, or mischievous. His eyes scanned them, recalling the moments the shutter had captured.

"This is my favourite." Marti commented, pointing out the one showing a young Derek about Marti's current age holding a small bundle in his arms, a proud and emotional look on his face. He remembered that moment. It was the first moment he held Marti in his arms.

Derek smiled, pulling his sister into a tight hug. He didn't want her to see the tears building in his eyes at all of the memories displayed in front of him. They were before the accident and it should've made him resentful or upset. Seeing himself before he was burdened this way, before something was taken from him. But he just felt happy. He really was blessed. He had great friends and an amazing family. What more did he truly need in life? Things were starting to feel good again. These days he was starting to laugh like he used to again. Starting to feel like he used to. And in a lot of ways, starting to feel BETTER than he used to.

As he pulled back and saw how happy his little sister was at his reaction, he realized, despite her young age, she knew that this is exactly the kind of present he needed.

"I love you Smarti." he told her.

She smiled back. "I love you too, Smerek. Let's go get your other presents. If you thought mine was good, just WAIT."

Derek climbed into his chair, feeling jittery with excitement.

* * *

He always looked forward to birthdays. A day all about him where he got free stuff? Um, yes please. But even he had a feeling that this birthday was going to be really, really special.

He showered quickly and dressed, not knowing what to expect downstairs.

On his way down on the lift, he scanned the dining room table. He'd always be given a few presents in his room and then the rest would be downstairs on the table. But all he saw there were two small deformedly wrapped presents, roughly the size of the average pencil case. Derek sincerely hoped that a pencil case was not in there. Or worse, a book. But everyone was going on like his present was the epitome of all presents for the world so he still found himself eying them curiously.

"Derek, there you are. Happy birthday sweetheart." Nora greeted warmly, leaning down to give him a hug. Normally he batted people off but he accepted them, mostly because he could smell his favourite breakfast being cooked. Chocolate chip pancakes with chocolate syrup and whipped cream. Diabetes in a breakfast, but oh so delicious.

"Pancakes?" Derek blurted out like a little boy and she laughed, waving him off to the kitchen.

"Yes Derek, your breakfast is on the table." she said amusedly. "You men and your stomachs."

He grinned back and made his way into the kitchen.

"Happy birthday son." George called over the newspaper, patting him on the shoulder.

"Thanks dad." he replied as he took his first massive bite of pancakes.

"You're repulsive. But it is your birthday, so happy birthday." Casey said, trying to hide her enthusiasm and her amused smile.

Derek chewed quickly. "Thanks." he said, his mouth (mostly) empty.

She was surprised he chewed at all. Maybe Derek _was_ growing up. At least somewhat.

After a few helpings, Derek felt satisfied. Casey grabbed his plate, putting it in the sink along with her fruit salad bowl.

"Happy Birthday Derek!" Edwin and Lizzie chorused, immediately presenting him with the gifts from the table.

"Sorry the wrapping sucks. Mr. Sticky-fingers sucks with tape." Lizzie explained, jerking her thumb at Edwin.

Edwin rolled his eyes. "Who wanted to use only organic paper? That stuff sucks at having tape stuck to it."

Derek chuckled at the pair of them and unwrapped the misshapen gifts. One was an air freshener. One of those ones for your car that you hang off the rear view mirror.

"Is this for my hockey bag or something?" he asked with a cocked eyebrow, wondering if this was one of those joke gifts again. That had happened last year, when they pretended to forget his birthday and give him 'terrible gifts'. He actually appreciated the gifts he received initially regardless of what they were, but he never told them that.

Lizzie and Edwin were grinning like the cat that got the cream. They shook their heads and encouraged him to open up the other one. He ripped the paper to find an Ipod adaptor for the car.

"Sweet! Now we have to listen to my music in the car." he said happily. "Thanks guys." He pulled the two preteens into a hug.

"Ready for my gift yet?" Casey asked, gracefully getting off her stool.

Derek hadn't noticed but she looked beautiful today. Casual khaki skirt, striped pastel tank top, a light form-fitting zip up hoodie. Her hair was down and wavy, her make-up light and natural. He always thought she looked best when she was natural.

He shook his inappropriate thoughts from his head and nodded, feeling suddenly nervous. Casey grinned excitedly, her nonchalant attitude evaporating instantly.

"Okay, so we all pitched in a bit, but it was mostly me and our parents." She almost half-ran to the living room. He could tell she had been bursting not to tell him now. He wondered how Casey, who couldn't lie to save her life, could keep a secret that was 'so amazing' according to everyone. But he admired her for it.

Derek followed her, trying to figure out what she could be talking about. The rest of the family followed, similar expressions of we-know-something-you-don't-but-we-know-you're-going-to-flip-when-you-find-out. He'd be almost annoyed that he was so out of the loop if he wasn't so damn curious.

Oddly, Casey headed out of the front door. What, did she get him a garden gnome?

She stopped down the walkway and Derek noticed a huge thing in the middle of the driveway. She pulled the sheet off with a grin on her face, watching his expression carefully.

Derek gasped, unable to stop his eyes from practically bugging out of his head.

A red sports-like car was shining in the middle of the asphalt.

The rate his expressions changed must have been amusing since the others were laughing. But finally his face settled on confusion. He was in a wheelchair. He couldn't drive. How would he stop? How would he _go_?

Casey approached him slowly.

"Derek, it's not a regular car. It's made for people like you. It has a _hand_brake. The gas is controlled in a similar way. Derek, you can drive this car. You can drive." she repeated, her eyes shining already. Her voice was quiet as she explained.

Derek stared at her in wonder. He had never heard of anything like this.

"Casey did all of the research. She found a place nearby that made these cars. She was very persuasive on the price, trading in the Prince, and found a place that offers lessons on how to drive these kind of cars. It's for people with a situation similar to yours. It'll re-teach you how to drive." Nora explained, holding up the envelope that contained the driving lesson certificate.

Derek didn't even remember thinking about it. But he pulled Casey onto his lap and into a hug, burying his face in her neck, trying not to let the rest of them know he was crying.

Casey didn't just give him a car, which was insane enough on it's own. She gave him _independence_. Which, despite the trouble that came with being paralyzed, was one of the biggest losses he had experienced since the accident.

When he pulled back, he saw Casey was crying too. She giggled a little, in embarrassment and at how silly they both looked, hugging and crying in happiness. But glancing back, he saw the rest of the family doing the same.

"I don't even know what to say. This feels like a dream." he stammered, obviously blown away, not taking his eyes off of the girl in front of him.

She looked rather shy, tucking her hair behind her ears and blushing pink.

"I can't thank you enough." he told Casey quietly, squeezing her hand in his.

He couldn't believe how much trouble she must have went through to find this and get it for him. She had obviously been planning it for months. Maybe since the accident for all he knew. He had no idea cars like this existed or were legal. Leave it to the keener, but still. She seriously was amazing.

"So do you want to try it out?" she asked, getting off of his lap hurriedly, finally remembering that there were witnesses.

He nodded excitedly and she tossed him the keys. He looked like a kid that just experienced ten Christmases in one day.

He pulled open the door and revealed the black leather seats. The car seated five people like any other car. It had a beautiful interior. It was like his dream car, except that the driver's seat was empty. Nothing there except mechanisms to strap his chair in and a small ramp that pulled out. In wonder, he yanked it down and slid into place, strapping himself in.

The inside was mostly the same as any other car, with a few new buttons. The emergency brake was a pedal on the dashboard, where as the regular handbrake was like a regular emergency brake: a lever that you pulled. Except this one had different degrees of braking, depending on how much friction you needed to slow yourself down. Derek played with it for a few minutes, beaming the whole time, and the whole family felt a weight be lifted off of their shoulders.

This was the new reality. And it wasn't as bad as it seemed four months ago.

Derek finally looked happy again. This new car was just skyrocketing things to even better places.

"Want to take it for a spin?" Casey asked with a grin, climbing into the seat next to him.

He shook his head in amazement at her and raised his eyebrows at his parents, asking their permission.

"Casey knows more about how that car works than probably the people who make it. As long as you make it quick. And BE SAFE." George added pointedly.

Derek was practically shaking in excitement as he backed out of the driveway for the first time in months.

* * *

Later in the day, Emily and Sam came over. They all watched the new Transformers movie, a gift from Emily, and Sam passed his best friend the new White Stripes album with a smirk.

They all ate cake and pizza and had a loud but fun evening. It was anything but quiet and boring in the McDonald-Venturi household. Birthdays were no different.

Finally, the night came to a happy close. Everyone gave Derek a final 'happy birthday' before retiring to their own spaces.

Derek grabbed Casey's hand before she could leave to her own room.

"I know I put it off the other night, but I really want to talk to you." he told her honestly.

Casey nodded. The other night they got stuck babysitting their siblings and then when they were finally alone, Casey passed out on her bed in the middle of her studying. Derek told her they'd talk soon and she was too tired to argue.

Things had gone back to normal with them, but she still wanted to talk about what happened.

Derek locked his bedroom door behind them. He really didn't want interruptions. This conversation would be painful enough. But after everything that had happened today and the talk he had with Jake the few days before, he was feeling a lot more confident.

He climbed on the bed after her and she immediately cuddled into his chest.

He had been considering his words for days and days. All the time he spent avoiding her, he tried to find the words to explain what he was feeling. How he would rationalize it for her. How he would finally admit what he was feeling.

It was time for Casey to know the real truth. No more hiding, no more running. Just honesty.


	15. Honesty

SO here it is :) The Daseyness you have all been waiting for :) I know its pretty OOC, I alwaysssss am the worst for that when it comes to talking about feelings. Derek just never does on the show so when I do it I make it like five times mushier than a normal person, and since its abnormal for him anyways, its that much worse. But hopefully you guys like it that way ;) I know they jump pretty quickly to discussing exactly how intense their feelings are for one another but it's now or never. They have a tough enough road ahead of them so I figured they should get rid of the REGULAR baggage now and then work on the harder stuff later!

There is a part in this where a bunch of you are going to freakkk out about I'm sure hahaha. I do have a plan, and am going to make everything in this story as realistic as possible. It wont be easy either. I'm hoping I can get some inspiring ideas on how to move this story along but elongate it as well since I love writing it, but we'll see what happens. Just keep an open mind is all I'm asking :)

I forgot to mention last chapter how happy I am that you all loved Jake :) I like him too. I'm going to find a way to give him at least another cameo in this story, but I have him in this chapter too. Hopefully his gift is obvious, I didn't actually say it out loud, but if any of you are confused... let's just say it will come up later in the story ;) But I'm sorry if I make Jake seem like a better friend than Sam, since I don't have Sam/Derek time very much in this story. I plan on fixing that soon :)

I have the next chapter written but it needs some SERIOUS editing since I'm really unhappy with it. Hopefully I will have it up by the weekend, but if I can I'll put it up earlier since I know I've kept all of you waiting on this story for faaar too long. I just want to have the chapter after it planned out before I post the one I have written now so I dont forget to add anything and such.

Anyways I'm trying to write shorter A/Ns, which I'm failing at if you havent noticed, so I'll leave you guys to enjoyyyy :) Keep up the reviews, you guys are fantastic!

**I DO NOT OWN LIFE WITH DEREK!**

* * *

**HONESTY**

Derek played with Casey's hair as she lay on his chest. One arm was around her while the other twirled the end of her brunette locks around his fingers.

Derek was trying to find a way to start the awkward confrontational conversation about feelings when Casey decided easing into it might be easier. "So, how was your birthday?"

He couldn't help but smile broadly. "Amazing. The best birthday ever thanks to you." he added, nudging her temple with his forehead.

Casey felt her insides glow with pride. That was exactly what she wanted.

"Glad to hear it." she replied.

A moment of silence passed between them, absorbing the memories of the wonderful day they had. Looking back, Casey realized they hardly spent any of it apart. She would find that unusual, except that wasn't that different from other years. This time they were more aware of it because they were spending it almost like a couple. Always in contact with each other somehow.

Derek finally gathered his courage. "Look Case, I know I upset you the other night. I was an ass and I'm sorry. I just… that night…. Well recently really… well it's even longer than that…" He was rambling; his nerves taking the reigns and galloping away.

Casey waited patiently.

He took a deep breath, allowing oxygen to reach his brain again. "As much as the accident sucked, I've enjoyed being closer to you. I love fighting with you and messing around, but I like just hanging out and talking too. I never wanted to get close to you before. I was too… scared." he finally admitted, feeling pathetic. Feelings sucked.

Casey simply nuzzled closer, her head on his shoulder as her arm linked through his.

He gathered up all of the bravery he could as he sucked in more air. "You haven't been wrong. I _was_ avoiding you. Feelings freak me out. That's not news. But I didn't mean to hurt you. I know things were confusing for both of us and me acting like an idiot only made it worse. I just couldn't face you. Couldn't face what I was feeling. Truthfully, I couldn't face what _you _were feeling."

Casey felt her face heat up. Was he saying that he knew she felt more for him than a friend and he couldn't handle that? That it was a bad thing? Did he think of her as a sister now and that's what he meant about his feelings? Oh my god, this was mortifying. No wonder he wanted to put it off. He thought she was some sort of freak but knew she'd feel awkward around him from then on when he was aware of her feelings that he couldn't return.

Derek continued before she could fully flip out. "Casey, I feel stupid saying this out loud, because apparently it's obvious to EVERYONE. But I don't think of you as a sister. Or a friend. I complain about you and pick fights with you and tried so hard to hate you because I didn't want to feel this way. But the truth is I can't fight it anymore. I nearly kissed you the other night and so many other times. I want to kiss you now." he told her, pulling back to see her reaction.

His eyes were wide and full of fear, not sure what to expect.

Casey was trying to breathe evenly. That was a much better explanation than she thought it would be.

She decided to go with a sassier response to make it easier on him. "So what's the hold up?" she asked, eyebrow quirked.

Derek looked surprised and then he grinned. "You know, that's a good point." and he placed his hands behind her neck and pulled her mouth onto his.

It took a few moments for Casey to register that Derek Venturi was actually kissing her. Finally. I mean, really, it took him almost four years. Four years of Casey imagining what his lips felt like, what it would feel like to finally kiss him, if he was gentle or rough, tender or sexual. Everyone said he was a good kisser, she just wondered what exactly that entailed.

But now she knew. It meant butterflies in the stomach, world spinning, sweet, gentle, loving kisses. His warm inviting mouth caressing hers. No pressure, no expectations, as if he was content to do this forever. His lips were so soft, as smooth as melting butter, meeting their lips in long and languid motions.

Casey couldn't stop the smile bursting across her face. She tried to hold it back but this was all too much. She was overwhelmed with happiness.

"Can you stop smiling? I'm trying to kiss you for god sakes." Derek muttered amusedly, pulling back to shake his head at her.

She giggled, a few stray joyous tears falling. "I'm just really, really happy."

Derek smiled back at her, never having seen her this ridiculously happy. She looked euphoric. It was hard to believe he was the cause.

His smile faded. The doubts started rolling through his mind again. He pushed himself away from her.

"…Derek?" she whispered in a hurt voice, wondering why the drastic change in atmosphere.

He sighed. "I never finished the reason why I was pulling away the other night."

"_I couldn't face what _you_ were feeling" _flashed through her mind.

He grew exasperated by her innocently confused face. "Casey, I'm _paralyzed _for god sakes. I don't know if I can even make love to you, let alone give you children. I don't know how great of a career I can have or how much my medical bills are going to cost over the years. And I know it's crazy to be talking about the forever kind of love, but that's what I feel for you, alright? I… I'm not going to let you settle for me. You deserve everything you've ever dreamed about and I will not stand in the way of that. I won't let you ruin your life to be with me."

Casey felt the tears fill her eyes for the umpteenth time that day. Derek's heart was breaking right in front of her eyes. He was willing to break his heart to give her what he thought she deserved: the world.

She caressed his face that was gradually becoming damp. "Derek, none of that stuff means anything to me if I can't have it with you."

He stared at her. She couldn't have said that. Not about him. Could she?

"Casey… you're not in your right mind.." he said, shaking his head disappointedly.

She cupped his face in her hands so he looked her straight in the eyes. "Derek. I want you. Only you. None of that stuff matters to me with anyone else. We'll find a way for whatever we want to do or we'll get through it together."

"How can you be so sure?" he asked seriously.

She smiled, letting one lone tear fall. "Because it's you and I. Nothing can touch us."

He finally allowed himself to feel hope, let his heart swell with love for this crazy and amazing girl in front of him, and pulled her into a passionate kiss.

The rest of the night was spent making out, being overly cutesy for Derek's taste and talking and laughing non-stop. It was like living in a dream world, only better. Because it was reality.

The couple was so caught up in themselves that they missed one very important thing.

After one particular tickle fight got out of hand, Derek tried to worm out of Casey's reach. And upon moving, there was one delayed reaction.

His foot. It gave one solitary twitch.

* * *

Later that night, near ten, Derek headed downstairs to let Jake inside. They man-hugged in greeting and Derek closed the door behind him.

"Sorry I'm so late, had to work a double-shift, BUT I brought you something." Jake said, holding up the gift bag.

Derek smiled. "You didn't have to. But thanks man."

"It's nothing too special. Who's ride?" he asked, jerking his thumb back and Derek knew immediately he was talking about the new red beauty in the driveway.

He grinned. "Mine. Gift from Casey and the 'rents." he explained.

"Are you SERIOUS?" Jake exclaimed, then realized he was being really loud and lowered his voice. "She bought you a CAR. Dude. Seriously. I told you."

Derek chuckled, explaining the mechanics of the car and why he of all people could drive it, as he dug through the tissue paper. Jake had gotten him some stuff for his guitar, since he was using second hand stuff from his dad's olden days as _George and the Jungle_. "That's awesome Jake, thank you. I really needed these."

It was one of those gifts that you didn't think to ask for but appreciated as much as if you did. Something Derek wouldn't have gotten for himself. Jake hadn't been a part of D-Rock, but they had jammed together a few times. A love for music was one of the things they had in common. It was something Derek didn't talk to many people about but it was one of his passions. Jake understood and they shared similar tastes.

His friend smiled. "Glad you like it. There's also something else at the bottom." he said with a mischievous smirk.

Derek felt himself get nervous at the look in his friend's eyes. He hesitated on whether or not to take a peek now or when he was gone.

Jake laughed, understanding his apprehension. "Later, trust me. But I have a feeling it's something else you'll be needing soon enough. Glad you and Casey finally made up." he said, gesturing to the side of his mouth.

Derek wiped at his own and realized there was lip gloss smudged there. So Jake had known this entire time. Well, that was somewhat embarrassing.

"Yeah, we did." Derek muttered, trying not to smile at the memories and at the fact he got caught.

"I'm happy for you bud. Seems like it was one of your better birthdays. I mean, you got a car for your birthday last year, and an even better one this year. AND you got the girl. Frankly, I'm a little jealous." Jake teased.

Derek laughed and shoved him playfully. Jake was similar to Sam in the way that he always knew how to make you feel better, even when you were already feeling good. He just was good with words and knowing his friends. Derek knew he was lucky that he had such solidly good friends. He hadn't noticed how blessed he was before the accident, but he was done taking things for granted now.

"Shut up, you charmer you." Derek teased back, and the two started roughhousing, slapping each other and generally being teenage boys, laughing as they attempted to hit each other.

"Glad he doesn't just wrestle with me." Casey's voice came amusedly as she descended gracefully down the stairs for some water.

Jake raised an eyebrow at her and both Derek and Casey blushed red. Casey was so innocent, but Jake's look clearly was pointing out the innuendo in her comment.

"Shut up." Casey said, even though he hadn't said a word. "I still need to lecture you on what to feed this idiot." she added pointedly, raising an eyebrow back at him in challenge.

Jake smiled at her. "WELL that's my cue to leave. Happy Birthday D. We should go to a movie this week or something."

"A date night, how cute." Casey called over her shoulder as she headed to the kitchen, smiling charmingly at Jake.

He returned the gesture. "Lovely to see you as always, Casey." he teased, batting his eyelashes at her in jest.

She laughed as she disappeared between the sliding doors.

Derek hit him. "Stop flirting with my woman." He was joking of course.

"Don't let her hear you say that. You know she doesn't belong to anyone." Jake reminded him amusedly.

Derek found it strange, but impressive, how well Jake understood everybody. Did he study them or was he just psychic? Sheesh.

"Anyways, you know I'm only bugging her. But have a good night. Although my present should help with that." he added, reminding Derek of the extra gift waiting for him.

Derek now understood exactly what the box underneath the tissue paper was filled with. His cheeks went a bit crimson, although he tried to act nonchalant.

"How do you even know my size? Checking me out in the locker room?" Derek asked amusedly as Jake slipped out of the front door.

Jake laughed. "Just guessed. Bought what I usually buy. Hopefully you're not allergic to anything." Cue another entertaining look from Derek. Jake got serious after that though, lowering his voice. "Seriously though Derek, I'm not trying to put pressure on you. I know you've got enough going on and that you and Casey are finally working things out. And I know things might have to be done a little differently what with the way things are with your condition, but I figure if things do heat up, you might not have been expecting it. And as clean as you both are, there are other complications that you don't need. They're just a safety net. I know Jason and some of the other guys don't really get it, but I do. You've got the right girl, but wait for the right time. It might not be exactly what you were fantasizing about all these years, but if it's with her, it will be special enough. I just know you can be an idiot sometimes." he finished, trying to lighten up his serious parental-sounding talk.

Derek smiled and patted his good friend on the shoulder. "You're awesome. I really do appreciate it. Everything." he told him honestly.

Jake clapped him on the shoulder good-naturedly. "Good. So this week. Either me and you or I'll find a date and grab Sam and Emily who are making googly eyes at each other lately, and you bring Casey. We'll be perfect gentleman for one night."

"As long as it's only ONE night." Derek agreed, smirking at his friend before parting ways finallyand heading back inside to see his girlfriend.


	16. Alteration

CAN I SAYYYY HOW SORRY I AM!

My laptop's back light broke and my computer basically just exploded haha SO many problems. I had to get it sent out and repaired and it took three weeks :( THEN I saved all my files on my external hard drive under the file type .wps. PROBLEM IS my works word processor program got wiped with my laptop and since the store had originally installed that when I first bought my laptop, I don't have a copy of a program and had no way to OPEN my files. So I found a site that converts my files from .wps to .doc so now I'm allllll good :) But first I had issues installing my regular Microsoft Office program soooo it hasn't been a fun few weeks :p

But I know that you guys were getting impatient. I planned on having this story done by December and obviously thattttt didn't happen. But I'm going to try to update as much I can. This story has a few more chapters left and I am excited to write them so it should be seen :)

ANYWAYS I sincerely apologize but my computer breaking was out of my hands. I don't have access to another computer so I was just stuck :( But this chapter is sort of... well, some of you will enjoy it ;) But the ending I'm a little unhappy with, but whatever! Fillers ftw.

But I hope you all enjoy it and I will update as soon as I finish the next chapter, and after I get a few reviews on this one :) Love you guys!

**I DO NOT OWN LIFE WITH DEREK!**

* * *

**ALTERATION**

"So when are we going to tell our parents about us?" Casey asked, looking sideways at Derek as she lay on his bed doing homework. He was typing in his calculator, his face screwed up in confusion at the number displayed, and jerked out of his reverie when she spoke.

"Oh. Um…" he trailed off. Truthfully, he wasn't sure how they'd take it. I mean, his dad had expressed how grateful he was that Casey and he were getting along now, but it was implied that he was glad they were brother-sister getting along. Not dating-your-step-sister getting along. As for Nora, he knew his girlfriend had had a similar conversation with her. He knew Marti loved Casey as a sister, but she was a cool kid, she would probably be happy as long as they were happy. Edwin and Lizzie might be awkward about it, or for all he knew, had made bets on them and would only be disappointed to lose five bucks. They lived in an interesting, unpredictable family.

Casey smiled at him. "We do have to tell them sometime."

He chuckled, rubbing her back affectionately since she was lying next to him, facing his direction. "I know. But keeping it a secret means we get unsupervised bedroom hangout time. And I happen to like it." he teased.

She closed her book with her pencil in it to mark the page and moved it aside to sit next to him. "I can't imagine why you would…" she teased, leaning up to kiss him on the mouth.

He shoved his stuff out of the way and hovered over her, forcing her to lie back on the bed. His hand descended up her shirt, stroking her smooth skin innocently and she allowed her fingers to coil into his hair.

Their kissing turned more serious and Derek pulled back, leaning his forehead against hers, his eyes closed in strain. "Case… we should slow down."

She nodded, even though she really didn't want to.

They had agreed a few nights ago that they would take things slow. They didn't want either of them regretting anything in their relationship. Because of Derek's condition, the physical side of their relationship would be a more emotional encounter than it normally would be, and add to that they had been crazy about one another for years, it wasn't something they wanted to rush. Because they _had_ been lusting after each other for so many years and add to that the hormones of a regular teenager, they were avoiding even second base at the moment since it would be too easy to get carried away and forget themselves.

But it was proving very difficult indeed. The pair had decided that whenever one of them felt themselves losing control, they'd stop immediately. It sucked but right now there was enough intensity in their lives. They didn't need another layer added.

Derek pushed back, righting himself into his previous sitting position with a sigh. Things may be different now, but he still knew his body wanted Casey's, pretty damn badly. It was made worse by the fact that they did live together. She had seen him without a shirt countless times, the sweat glistening off of his body leading her to many inappropriate thoughts. Derek, on the other hand, had seen her in just a towel, or a bikini, or her skin tight dance costumes, or that babe raider outfit that made his eyes bug out of his head. It was enough to drive any teenager crazy.

Casey sighed too. She knew what they were doing was responsible and smart, two things that she normally was all for. But it was harder than she wanted to admit. She didn't want to be a love-struck hormonal teenager, but she was. She was still living on the high that the great Derek Venturi was head over heels for HER.

Both of them tried to get back to their studying. But Derek found his eyes wandering to Casey's shirt that had ridden up, revealing her toned abdomen. Casey kept glancing at Derek out of the corner of her eye, her eyes landing on his swollen lips. She knew physio had gotten him into better shape too so her imagination was running wild on what his body looked like nowadays.

Their eyes finally met. Derek didn't remember throwing his stuff to the floor, nor did Casey with hers, but somehow she was suddenly straddling his lap and they were back at it again.

This time, they were much more passionate. Unrestrained. Teeth gnashing, lips bruising, short breaths. Their hands unashamedly explored each other, both of their shirts somehow getting lost in the struggle.

The family was out to dinner at the Allen's, which wasn't helping either of them think straight. How often did they get the house to themselves?

When they broke for air, Casey bravely kissed up the middle of his stomach, all the way up his neck before meeting their lips again, hands clutching his face to hers. Her tongue immediately was fighting its way into his open mouth.

Who the hell was this girl? Derek was glad he hadn't known that this side of her existed when he was fifteen. He would've had even more wet dreams than he already had.

Derek's hands found her covered breasts, gently caressing her. He didn't know how far she'd gone with other guys and he didn't want to rush her into anything. But her body pressed further into his at his touch so he continued his ministrations with more confidence.

As they tangled together against his headboard, he was vaguely aware of himself getting turned on. He might have found this slightly odd or exciting, except he could hardly concentrate on anything but the girl in front of him. His mind was racing almost as fast as his heart.

"Der-ek…" she half-mumbled/half-moaned into his lips, when he pressed into her sensitive spots harder. He swore his name had never sounded better coming from anyone else as it did in that one moment.

His hips were instinctively lifting in the tiniest way, almost more like twitching, to meet her gentle thrusts. They separated for air again, but their bodies continued the rest of the act, not caring how little oxygen was fuelling the actions. Derek began nibbling on her neck, Casey's head tilting back, her hips still moving against his. He could hardly comprehend anything, but he wondered if Casey was even aware of what her lower half was doing.

"Derek… you're um… you're turned on." Casey commented softly; almost like if she said it normal volume, he might freak out.

He chuckled against her skin. "I blame you."

She giggled, his hardening erection sending shivers through her body. "We should stop before it gets too much." she admitted, licking her lips, pulling back a bit.

Derek nodded, resting his hands on either side of her waist and sighing. He really wanted to continue, but he knew they were both far too out of control. A few more seconds and they wouldn't be able to stop.

"I've got to go hop in the shower." he confessed, embarrassed, but it was sort of obvious.

Casey smiled sympathetically and climbed off of him, searching for her discarded notes.

Derek got in his chair and wheeled down the hall, turning the water on warm. There was no stopping his hard-on now… it would hurt way too much. But he didn't want Casey to know that or she'd feel bad for leaving him hanging.

After the job was done, Derek washed himself clean. He wasn't really paying attention, cleaning on autopilot, when he saw his leg twitch. He stared at the limb, as if expecting it to come to life like a motionless robot. Nothing happened. He tried washing over the same spots on his back, wondering if it was something he did to stimulate it. Nothing.

Derek sighed, figuring he imagined it.

* * *

A couple nights later, Derek found himself at Sam's with Jake. They were watching the live White Stripes concert Sam taped.

"So how's Casey, Derek?" Jake asked him pointedly.

Derek gaped at his implication while Sam laughed. Jake reached over and ruffled Derek's hair. "I'm MESSING with you. Chill."

He rolled his eyes at him. "She's great, thank you. Actually… I kind of have something I want to talk about…" he admitted, hating to go all girly but he really did need to talk to someone.

Both of his best friends looked concerned and all joking was instantly put aside.

"What's up D?" Sam pressed when Derek hesitated.

He inhaled. "This is going to sound…whatever. But I think I might be getting some feeling back. In my lower half." he confessed.

Two sets of eyes stared back at him, wide as saucers.

"Nothing big or anything. I've just noticed some spasms here and there. I talked to my physiotherapist and she said that it might be the nerves just spazzing out. Basically, nothing. Almost like phantom pains, even though technically my legs are still attached and everything. I don't want to get my hopes up, or Casey's which is why I'm telling you guys." he added. "But I was thinking back to the party Jason threw way back when I first came back to school. Danielle had come on to me and basically molested me." he said irritably, remembering that it was in the middle of the party. Thankfully it seemed no one noticed. "But I hadn't even noticed her hands in my pants. But I've found I have more control over going to the bathroom and stuff now… and when me and Casey were… well, making out the other night…"

It was sort of embarrassing to say out loud to your friends but they understood.

"Casey's hot, man. No shame." Jake said, then laughed at Derek's murderous expression.

"Careful dude. He will try to beat you up for even liking her personality." Sam said, remembering Derek's initial reaction to _his_ crush on Casey. He and Casey had dated briefly and he was not about to join in on Jake's comments, adding how many times Casey had gotten _him_ excited. Derek may be in a wheelchair but it didn't mean he couldn't kill his best friend.

"Yeah. Well. Anyways." Derek breathed heavily through his nose much like a bull before continuing. "So then, with her, it happened. I felt her on top of me and almost everything that was going on down there. The doctors said if the compression went down it would most likely take years. And this may be all I get. But it definitely means something right? I mean, I'm not saying I'll be walking next week or ever even, but it's got to be something. I just… don't know if I should tell Casey. Because, well, she's Casey." he added pointedly.

Sam and Jake nodded, knowing what he meant.

Casey, bless her, had the biggest heart. If she found out there was even the slimmest chance that Derek of all people could get feeling back in his legs, well, who knows what she would do.

"Well, like you said, it could be nothing… but…" Sam began, looking apprehensive.

Jake continued for him. "Maybe Casey can help you. She's got you this far. Maybe you should trust her."

"And think of if she finds out you kept something this big from her." Sam added.

Derek sighed. "Fine, fine. I'll tell her. IF it happens again." he compromised, looking at them as if daring for them to argue.

They nodded. No need to get her hopes up but she wouldn't appreciate being kept out of the loop.

All three guys could only think that things were about to get very interesting.


	17. Excitement

Sick of hearing apologies from me for taking so long to update? Yeah, me too.

I'll keep it short. I've got about a million excuses, all of which are unneccessary to tell you. BASICALLY I was in the hospital for a few weeks which delayed my writing and updating so I dooooo apologize profusely. I'm still alive and kickin', so dont worry about it! My body decided it felt liike internally bleeding for no reason, as I've had no trauma that would've caused it and the doctors basically sent me home being like 'well i hope it doesnt happen again!'. Thanks guys. Anyways add to that a new job and my sister moving to another provinceee (yes, I am Canadian), I've been a littleee busy. But I really am sorry for taking FOREVER again. I know. Old news. But just saying.

BUT I am working on the next chapter now and am going to try to finish writing this storyy in the next two weeks so that it can be done by February. I appreciate all of your support and the fact that you read my stuff :)

ANYWAYS Dasey fluff, as usual. OOCness, as usual. Overly cutesy, as usual. You get the drill, right?

Enjoy, love you, etc etc. Things are moving along quite nicely now, so this story will be wrapped up in about three - five chapters I'd say :) Maybe less maybe more, stay tuned to find out ;)

**I DO NOT OWN LIFE WITH DEREK!**

* * *

Casey made her way up the paved entrance to Derek's work, feeling rather out of place. She went to a solely dance studio, so she had no real experience with sports centers like this one. She only had gone to this type of place as a kid for birthday parties at the pool or the rink. Derek used to forbid her to go to his games, but the few she had gone to hadn't been at this particular building. She hoped she wouldn't have too much trouble finding him.

He had said he was working the front desk, so that should be right inside the main doors, right?

Except that there were about five different 'main' entrances. She sighed when she saw someone else at the desk located near her door. Taking a quick glance at the huge sign detailing which rooms were where, she decided that it would be best just to ask the woman behind the nearest desk.

The lady smiled warmly at her as she approached looking slightly nervous.

"I'm looking for Derek Venturi? He works at one of the customer service desks but I'm not sure in which part of the building." she admitted embarrassedly.

The woman had a moment of confusion and then it dawned on her. "OH Derek! Yes of course!" She immediately stood and turned towards the right. "Follow that staircase up, take a left and follow the hallway until the end. The room will open back up and you'll be able to spot him no problem."

She smiled in gratitude. "Thank you so much. I would've been lost for hours in here."

The woman chuckled. "Derek tells me you're quite intelligent, I'm sure you would've gotten by. It's nice to finally meet you, Casey."

Casey blushed a little. Derek talked about her? To people on a completely different floor even?

"You know who I am? Wow. Now this is almost more embarrassing."

She laughed. "I'm Paula. Derek complains about you constantly." Casey rolled her eyes. Paula smiled more warmly. "But he speaks about you with such high praise and love in his voice we all see right through it, don't you worry sweetie."

Casey turned even more crimson. "Right. Well. I better go. Thanks for everything."

Paula waved as Casey hurried away up the stairs. Casey liked praise as much as the next person, but she found it a little intimidating when it came from people she didn't even know.

She followed the directions and peered around the corner. She wanted to surprise him. His shift ended soon and they hadn't celebrated on their own yet.

She was surprised at what she saw. Well maybe surprised wasn't the right word.

Derek was talking seriously with the woman in front of him as he wrote things down on the documents in front of him. It seemed as if he was going through all of the charges, procedures and schedule with her for whatever she was signing up for. There was a young boy standing beside her looking nervous.

She had never seen Derek look so… professional. Grown up. Serious. She smiled. It was definitely a good look on him.

Derek raised his eyebrows at the woman in front of him at one point and then peered over the desk.

He started talking animatedly with the kid, imitating slap-shots. Casey knew then that the mother was putting her son in hockey and that he was nervous. Casey moved closer to hear what he was saying.

"Ben shoots, he scores! The crowd goes wild!" Derek made the crowd cheering noise and the younger male started to smile a little. The mother looked eternally grateful. "Ben, you have nothing to worry about. Skating is awesome and hitting a puck with a hockey stick is pretty much the best feeling in the world. And the GIRLS!" he added and the ten year olds eyes widened. Derek grinned. "Yeah dude, they'll be following you around like little puppies. Hockey's the country's sport for a reason. Trust me; hockey is the best idea _ever_. You'll make cool friends and never have a problem scoring dates." he added with a wink.

Ben was beaming now. "When does it start?"

Both Derek and Ben's mom laughed. Derek ruffled his hair.

"A couple weeks from now. Don't worry, it'll be worth the wait." he promised.

Ben's mom shook his hand, clapping the other hand on top and squeezing in thanks. Derek smiled at her, both of them having a silent exchange, before releasing her hand and filing the paperwork appropriately.

Casey breathed in and made to walk over when a blonde around their age strode up and perched herself on the edge of his desk.

"You were so good with them, D. You're really great with kids." she said encouragingly.

A small part of Casey burned in jealousy. Who was this girl? Was she flirting?

Derek smiled. "I have three younger siblings. I have to like kids or I'd be pulling out my hair by now."

Blondie chuckled. "So a few of us are going out for pizza later. Want to join?"

Derek made a regretful face. "Wish I could. Got a date with my girlfriend though. Maybe next time?"

She smiled, not looking bothered in the slightest. "Definitely. Leland will kill you if you skip."

Derek chuckled before finally spotting Casey. She waved awkwardly.

He glanced up at the clock and realized that the girl was there to take him off. "I better head out, Kaylie. Casey's here."

Kaylie looked up and her eyes widened when she saw Casey. Casey wasn't sure what was so surprising… that Casey was present or that she was dating The Great Derek Venturi?

"Wow she's a looker. When you're done, can I have a go?" she teased quietly, but Casey heard her. Her earlier jealous thoughts seemed pointless now.

"You know Amber would KILL you for saying that. But she is something isn't she." Derek added cockily, wheeling out from behind the desk. "Later cutie."

"Have a fun night! Although I'm sure you will." she added with a smirk.

He simply grinned over his shoulder at her.

His face lit up even more when he approached his girlfriend. "Case, what are you doing here? You know I have a car right?" he added, rather foolishly since she was the whole orchestrator of that fact.

She giggled when she realized he was only teasing. "I just thought it might be nice if we could celebrate your new job on our own." she suggested, biting her lip and trying not to go completely girly and blush and squeal when he laced their fingers together. The funny thing was, she was pretty sure he did it unconsciously.

"Cool. So my room or yours?" he teased, wagging his eyebrows at her.

She rolled her eyes. "I thought we could go _out_."

"Man, and I thought we were_ already_ dating." he continued easily. Getting on Casey's nerves was like breathing to him. Half the time he wasn't even aware he was doing it.

Casey tried not to laugh. He was so irritating but amusing regardless. "Remind me why I put up with you again?"

He slung an arm around her waist. "Enlighten _me_. I'm still trying to figure that one out."

* * *

Casey was oddly the quieter of the two when they made their way to a small diner for a celebratory dinner date. Derek was animatedly catching her up on his work life, explaining all the different things he did and his new friends.

She couldn't stop smiling as he gushed about everything. He was like a whole new person. He loved his job and she could tell he felt important and…normal. Like he fit in. Like there was nothing different about him than anyone else. He had been going to that sports center for years so he knew it at the back of his hand. It was the perfect job for him, where he got to work with people and use his charm and sports background to help them out.

Casey squeezed his hand when he intertwined it with hers on reflex as he continued on. She couldn't be prouder of him. He was pushing himself and excelling and she was so happy how everything was turning out.

Their desserts arrived and Derek was silent as he dug in like a typical Venturi. Casey had gotten a strawberry sundae whereas Derek was spooning through hot fudge, caramel, sprinkles and chopped nuts on his.

She used to find his table manners appalling, and she did still, but a part of her found it a little endearing. Derek was Derek and she couldn't help but love that.

He caught her staring and stuck his tongue out at her, ice cream and all.

She made a face. "Der-ek… we're in public… can you not act like a misbehaving five year old?"

He smirked then scooped up a few stray nuts of the table and threw them at her.

"Der-ek!" she shrieked in annoyance.

He cackled and went back to eating.

She rolled her eyes. "You know, I actually have something for you."

His eyes lit up. "A present?"

Casey laughed. "NO. But… you should like it." She pulled out a thick envelope from her purse and he gulped when he saw the sender: _Queens University_.

She put a hand on his knee, although he couldn't feel it. "It doesn't matter what it says in this envelope. You've already come so far. I am so proud of you."

Derek stared at the envelope, now in his hand, absorbing her words. He knew she was right. Things really were turning around for him. But he knew Casey's dream school was Queens, and even if he didn't get in he could still drive up to see her or they could find some other way to make it work. But he really wanted to go to university. And the courses they looked into there actually captured his interest. He found himself getting _excited_ for school. Which was completely opposite of the old Derek.

However, Queens was a very prestigious university. His marks had improved in the past couple months by a long shot but it didn't erase the past mistakes he made. His marks were borderline to bad. What was he thinking applying to Queens? He wasted money and hope. He knew Casey's hopes were up too. She had received her acceptance letter a couple weeks before, early admission. He hated to disappoint her.

"Derek, you don't have to open it here. It was stupid of me to bring it. You don't even have to open it in front of me… I just thought you'd want to right away… I'm such an idiot…" Casey rambled quickly, shaking her head at her behavior, rifling through her purse to make a clean spot to put it back in.

Derek shook his head. "No. I want to see what it has to say. I'm just nervous."

Casey nodded understandingly and waited.

Taking a deep breath, he tore the top sliver of the envelope off, extracting the letter and placing the empty package on the table. He could feel a slight quiver in his hands as he unfolded the page before him.

"Dear Mr. Derek Venturi," he began, taking a deep breath as he continued to read out loud. "It is-" he stopped as his eyes continued following the line.

Casey was Casey so she pretty much stopped breathing all together.

Derek exhaled shakily as he continued. "-my pleasure to offer you full-time admission to Queens University."

Casey squealed loudly and several people turned to stare in alarm as she threw her arms around his neck.

"YOU GOT IN!" she shouted, not caring what anyone else was doing. Derek hugged her back, not believing it.

He pulled back to meet their lips. His fingers curled the ends of her hair around them, Derek quickly getting lost in kissing her.

She broke away for air after a few moments, blushing as she always did when they got carried away. She started rambling about courses and schedules and study timetables and Derek just watched her ramble with affection. He felt like a million bucks.

But he was still blown away. Not only did he get into a great university, his family was going to FLIP OUT, but it meant that his future with Casey was becoming easier and easier.

"Derek, stop kicking me. I'm not playing footsie with you." Casey giggled, not really thinking about it.

Derek looked at her in alarm and she gasped.

"Oh my god! Derek! Your-your foot! You can-" she was practically hyperventilating she was so excited.

He grasped her hands in his quickly. "Case, calm down. It doesn't mean that. I still can't feel it. Patricia said it's normal to get spasms. My nerves are still in shock or something. I've sort of been getting them a lot lately…"

Her face fell. "Why didn't you tell me?"

He sighed, caressing her face with his hand. "Because I didn't want to get your hopes up. They don't mean I'm going to walk again."

Casey met his eyes, that usual fierce determination in her eyes that always aroused him and inspired him reflecting back.

"Derek, you are right. For once." He sent her a look, but she ignored him. "It might be nothing. But it could be something, right? I don't want to get anyone's hopes up… but the doctor did say that you might get some feeling back. I mean, maybe you will never walk again but maybe you'll be able to have an easier time with more feeling in your hips or something. We should talk to Patricia or your doctor. See if there's a way we can help it along, if anything."

Derek hadn't thought of that. He had been so nervous about telling her, but Jake and Sam were right. Casey could help him. She was resourceful and determined and if the spasms _did_ mean something more, she was the perfect person to help him out.

They paid for their food and headed out, both their minds buzzing with how fast the world could change.

* * *

Once they were home and in his room again, Casey continued on, having had time to collect her thoughts and try to figure out a game plan. "Do you feel like you've gotten more feeling back in your lower half at all?"

Derek was apprehensive to admit it because he wasn't entirely sure it was true, but he settled on honest. "Yeah, I think so. Not a lot. But I find it easier to go to the bathroom and stuff. I've stopped using any aids now."

Casey's eyes widened. She hadn't really thought about it. Just because they were dating and lived together didn't mean she tracked his bowel movements. But his watch didn't sound off an alarm every few hours anymore.

"D, that's awesome! I know it's not like it used to be but this is a good sign." she encouraged as she sat cross-legged in front of him. "I know since we've gotten involved at least, you can get aroused…" she added, trailing off embarrassedly. She still was overly flattered that Derek could have that reaction over her.

He smirked at her. "Well, who could blame me? Even Kaylie liked what she saw."

Casey was approaching fire-truck color at this point. She swatted at him.

"Whatever. Look, do you want to work on this or not, mister?"

Derek chuckled and threw a pillow at her. "Of course. But you said we were going to celebrate my new job on our own. And I can think of something I feel like doing more right now… " he said, glancing to make sure the door was locked before pulling her on top of him with his usual mischievous grin.


	18. Revelation

Sorry for the delay, your guys' reviews were amazingggg last chapter! I cant thank you all enough.

I was waiting to post because I wanted to write the rest of the story in case I wanted to change anything. This will be the second last chapter of this story, so I hope you enjoy it :)

I know this story isn't exactly following the painfully realistic world we live in, but I like stories that allow us to dream a little... :) And Dasey always leaves me dreaminnnnn' ;)

ANYWAYS one more chapter left I do believe, I haven't written it yet haha. But I'm satisfied with this chapter, so here we gooo! Love you all!

**I DO NOT OWN LIFE WITH DEREK!**

* * *

**REVELATION**

Derek groaned, falling backwards onto his bed from his chair.

Casey shut the door behind them and sat next to him, sympathetically rubbing his back.

"How was physio?" Casey asked, lounging out next to him and continuing her ministrations.

He groaned again. "Patricia works me harder than ever since she found out about my lessened paralysis. She had me walking with crutches tonight."

"Really?" Casey asked excitedly.

Derek smirked. "I only lasted a few seconds really. But yeah, it was pretty cool." he admitted sheepishly.

"You know it'll be worth it though. We will work through this. You remember what they said." Casey encouraged, snuggling closer to him now.

* * *

_ "But it's not impossible." Casey pressed, for the third time._

_Patricia smiled calmly at her. She wasn't about to admit it, as it was irrelevant, but she found Casey's persistence on this particular matter rather endearing._

"_No. It's not impossible." Dr. McCallum continued, smiling slightly as well. He adjusted himself in the plastic seat. "But Casey, you have to understand. Spasms are very common. With Derek's condition being so new, the nerve endings are still trying to adjust. They're almost like phantom pains; they will always come and go. But, as I said at the hospital, his swelling is not necessarily as permanent as the severing of the spinal cord. And the change, if any, is very gradual."_

_The four of them; that is Derek, Casey, Derek's physiotherapist Patricia and Derek's doctor Dr. McCallum, were meeting to discuss the recent changes. Casey wanted to get the group of them together to get feedback from everyone._

"_But Derek is already experiencing changes in his mobility. That has to mean something, right?" Casey added, before Derek could open his mouth._

"_Well it's wonderful news. We're definitely heading in the right direction. But that may be all you get, Derek." The doctor turned back to the eldest McDonald. "Casey, changes like this, if any, take time. If he's making progress already, that could be it or it could continue down that route. But it's only been a few months. If he ever gets full mobility back, it would very likely take years or even decades. The current improvement might be that the nerves had been in shock or something similar until recently."_

"_Isn't there something we can do to aid the process?" Casey asked, not feeling discouraged in the slightest._

_Patricia cut in. "So far, we have been doing what's best. Building up the weak muscles to alleviate pressure on the spine or nerves. Testing the limits of the paralysis. We'll continue doing so in physio; but really, you guys seem to be doing a pretty good job on your own. Time is the healer of all wounds, if you want my preachy opinion."_

_Derek nodded. Casey pursed her lips as her mind ran through all the questions she mentally noted to ask, and, finally feeling satisfied, nodded as well._

* * *

"I'm trying to be both positive and realistic. Not a great combination." Derek reminded her.

She sighed. She knew he was right. She wasn't exactly taking the mentally healthy approach; she just really wanted to believe that this was a temporary thing. It was hard to see Derek struggle to do things, or when his eyes changed when he tried to do something that was so simple to a regularly functioning person.

"I know. But regardless of what happens, things have turned around for you. You've figured a lot of stuff out, about yourself and your future and even your true friends. Your marks have never been better and I don't think I've ever seen you so truly content." Casey said honestly.

Derek nodded in agreement, mulling over everything. The family had come round, stopped treating him like delicate glass. As a family, they were honestly closer than ever. His close friends hadn't changed a bit, which he was grateful for. Casey obviously was a huge impact in his life and he couldn't be happier about that. But doing well in school was oddly more fulfilling than slacking off! He was already excited about Queens. Especially because he would be going with Casey. As for hockey, it was a huge loss. He had spoken to the coach recently though, in a more civil, less emotional manner than before. He felt a lot better about a lot of things.

Derek knew everything happened for a reason. As much as his life couldn't be considered _better_ exactly, certain elements had improved. For that, he could not complain.

He was learning to work around his condition. It wasn't too difficult at times, and other times he just wanted to curl up in a ball and shut the world out, give up on everything. But Casey pushed him through. She was his guiding light.

These sappy thoughts had been infecting his thoughts since the accident too. Derek blamed brain damage; despite the fact that his helmet had absorbed the majority of the blow.

The couple continued talking in soft voices, Derek's fingers absentmindedly curling around and running through her wavy locks. They talked and laughed and lied together like lovers.

That is until their siblings burst through the door.

"DINNER!" Marti shouted, Sir Monks-A-Lot dragging along the floor, his paw in her small hand.

"Um… have something you want to tell us?" Lizzie asked awkwardly, but her smile showed her excitement.

Casey glanced at Derek who shrugged, not moving from their position.

"They might-as-well know now. It's not like it's going to change anytime soon."

Casey smiled and gestured them to come in the room.

The three younger siblings sat on the edge of the bed, looking like children eagerly waiting for their bedtime story.

"So I guess it's a little late to ask now… but how would you guys feel about Derek and I dating?" the oldest female of the five asked apprehensively.

Edwin raised his eyebrows at her. "Dating huh? As in, not fighting all the time and bursting with UST so that the rest of us can barely stand to walk in the room? I think it's cool."

The couple in question stared at him, confused.

Lizzie continued. "Yeah, I can't say I have a problem with it. Maybe we can have a meal without needing an immediate shower afterwards! Mashed potato is harder to get out than it looks."

Derek rolled his eyes. Girls and their hair. Sheesh.

Marti's turn. "Well all I have to say is…IT'S ABOUT TIME!" she shouted happily, clapping her hands in excitement. "Oh. And when are we eating? Dad and Nora are going to come looking for us soon."

"Yeah, and even though we're fine with it, I can't say Mom and George are going to be ecstatic at the thought of you guys having all of this closed-bedroom time together… especially since they're taking us bowling after dinner and you two will be left all alone in the house." Lizzie added mischievously.

"WELL _I'm_ starved." Derek cut in, lifting himself into his chair, attempting to hide his blush at the images Lizzie just forced in his head.

"Yeah, about dinner…." Casey said quickly, crimson now. She leapt to her feet and led the rest of them out of Derek's room.

* * *

Dinner went by relatively flawlessly. Derek, as always, wished he had feeling back in his legs. But mostly so he could kick Edwin under the table like he used to, since his younger brother kept making innuendos regarding his relationship with Casey. As awesome as their parents were, he wasn't sure anyone's parents were THAT awesome, that they'd love the idea of their teenage children romantically dating.

Thankfully, they were already heading out with Lizzie, Edwin and Marti for some bowling family fun. Casey told them they had to work on math homework anyways, even though they had finished that long before dinner.

He would never admit it to Casey, but he _did_ like getting his work done right away. It made for a much more relaxed evening… and Casey. The sultry smile she sent him after she fibbed was enough to make his knees feel weak; had that been possible.

"I'm starting to notice that we spend all of our time in your room." Casey commented as she cuddled into his side, finally alone.

His laptop was propped up on his lap, with pillows on either side stabilizing it. He smirked at her observation.

"Well your room is freakishly clean. We wouldn't have any fun in there." Derek teased.

Casey, being Casey, took the bait.

"Excuse me, my room is perfectly fun! And who says we'll have any fun in here?" she threatened with a Derek-level smirk right back at him.

Derek cussed under his breath. Casey won a lot more arguments nowadays.

"You're going to have to be neater once we go to Queens and you get a roommate. They won't put up with this mess in the dorms." she reminded him.

Derek scratched the back of his neck. Casey watched him warily, knowing the nervous habit.

"About that… I was thinking…" He clicked and typed away, before opening up to a real estate site. "Would you consider living with me again? Just us two this time?" he asked, trying to sound smooth but his eyes showed his fear.

Casey's eyes widened. Her eyes scanned the page, calculating prices and locations and the thought of waking up in Derek's arms every morning.

She suddenly beamed at him, throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly.

He laughed as he hugged her back. "So that's a yes right? Or do I have to call the asylum again?"

She shoved him playfully before pressing her lips to his.

"You're so annoying." she huffed.

He rubbed the small of her back affectionately. "But you love me. Can't say I blame you." he added with a wink.

She rolled her eyes and leaned her head on his chest. "You always know how to ruin a moment."

"Meh, it just comes naturally."

She smirked and chewed on the corner of her thumb, smiling as they lay together and scrolled through different apartments.

Derek had obviously done this before; he narrowed it down to one or two bedroom apartments, a reasonable price range, and within distance of Queens. He pulled up another page that he had worked out monthly costs depending on how much they paid for rent, food, and regular bills. Casey inputted her thoughts and he adjusted accordingly. He really needed her help with that sort of stuff, as his was all guess work, but Casey had always been more responsible and tended to pay attention to things like that.

As they discussed their plans, Casey's smile continued to grow on her face.

She looked rather giddy, so Derek's curiosity peaked and he just had to question it. "What's with you?"

"I just… I've been looking forward to this day. Making plans for the future with the love of my life." she explained happily.

Derek smiled, his mind replaying over the last four words of her sentence repeatedly.

"So you _do_ love me?" he murmured shyly, tracing designs under her t-shirt.

Casey crawled onto his lap so she could meet his gaze perfectly. "I know when I'm screaming at you and arguing about every little thing, it doesn't seem like it. But ever since I moved in here, and you challenged my authority as the eldest of the family and basically my entire gender, I have been crazy about you. I love you, Derek. After all this time, I don't think there will ever be a time that I don't."

Derek's eyes changed to the warmest, buttery brown she'd ever seen as he smiled tenderly back at her. "I have and always will love you, Casey. I tried to fight it for the longest time, but… you just kept thawing out my icy heart." he teased, putting a hand over his chest, although he meant every word. It was easier for Derek to deflect true feelings with a joke or making fun. He was never good with feelings.

Derek didn't trust people easily. Typical child of divorce, who pushes others away and dropped friends and dates before they could do it to him. But Casey… she was something special.

She tilted her head to the side, raising an eyebrow at him, before shaking her head amusedly. Derek really hated feelings.

He realized he owed her real honesty and grasped her hands in his. "I love you the forever kind, Case. The only person I want all of this stuff with is you."

She smiled broadly, the usual watery eyes every time Derek said anything sentimental and sweet shining back at him.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately.

He wound his arms around her small waist, returning the kiss with the same enthusiasm.

"Are you sure you want to share a room? I mean, I think a two bedroom is definitely a good idea so we have a guest room/study… but what if you get sick of me?"

Derek pulled back with a sigh of amusement, then paused, his face changing to shock. "Casey…"

"No, I know. We love each other. But living in an apartment just the two of us is a big step and we don't want to make too many changes too quickly, right? I don't want to regret anything with you…"

"Casey…"

"But then again, all I want is to wake up every day in your arms and go to sleep the same way." Her voice was full of love and affection.

Derek grabbed both of her arms tightly. "CASEY."

Casey's face changed to slight panic as she saw the mirroring panic and fear in his eyes. Was she scaring him or something? Was he hurt?

"What is it? What's wrong?" she begged, backing off of him quickly.

His eyes filled with tears. "I-I can feel them. My legs. I can feel my legs."


	19. Leap of Faith

My lovelies ! This. Is. It. I'm actually really sad to see this story go, I really enjoyed writing it since it has a lot more deeper meaning and lessons than my others. I am a true believer in love conquers all and has no limits.

I'm going to further explain my reasoning for this story at the end, so for now, enjoy reading :)

I posted quickly because I definitely oweee you guys ;)

Just want to thank you guys for all the reviews! Last chapter was great, so glad you guys didn't hate the fact that I made him get better, even though its pretty unrealistic.

**I DO NOT OWN LIFE WITH DEREK!**

* * *

**LEAP OF FAITH**

Casey stared into his equally tearful eyes, unable to believe her ears.

She couldn't have heard him right. No, there's no way. Did the doctors not _just_ say that it would take years to get feeling back? That if he did, it would be gradual, not this all-at-once phenomenon? Casey had been the firmest believer behind Derek's condition getting better but even she couldn't believe that it would happen _this_ fast.

They simply stared at each other, then quickly looked down at his legs, then back up to each other, not really sure what to do.

"Really?" Casey finally asked, before bursting into tears of joy.

Derek rubbed her shoulders comfortingly, at a loss for words. Was he imagining things? Could he really feel her knee digging into his thigh, his sock loose on his foot? What if it was only temporary? What if it was just a brief moment?

"Derek, try to move your legs." she urged, but Derek shook his head quickly like a child, too frightened to lose this feeling. He had been robbed of it for so long he wasn't giving it up again easily.

Casey's voice grew more tender. "Derek, try to move your legs."

He inhaled deeply and nodded. Casey backed away as he shut his eyes closed tight in anticipation and instructed his legs to move.

They did.

They extended. They bent. They wiggled and locked and his feet flexed and pointed. They did everything they were supposed to do.

Both teens stared at each other, tears pouring down both of their faces. Casey threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly, crying into his neck in pure happiness.

It was out of this world. There was no way this could be happening. Derek pinched himself over and over again, waiting to wake up from the cruel dream but to no avail.

He pulled Casey's mouth to his, kissing her urgently. He wasn't sure what exactly the emotion he was filling was. Elation. Relief. Gratitude. Euphoria. Every positive emotion in the world and then some. He felt like he was losing his mind he was so overwhelmed with feelings.

There were no words to describe the feelings blossoming from his chest, warming his heart to lava level and flying him past cloud nine, all the way to cloud ninety-nine or higher.

Casey pulled back and was beaming, wiping her face quickly.

"I'm so happy for you. This is amazing." she said, giggling with giddiness.

"What if it's only temporary?" Derek asked in a small voice, far too vulnerable in front of her for his liking but knowing that she had seen him in much worse states so he didn't really care.

She caressed his cheek and looked him straight in the eyes with a determined smile. "Then you'll just have to make it worthwhile."

Derek pondered this for a moment before suddenly flipping her over and beginning to kiss her again, his hands immediately sliding under her shirt.

"Der-ek." she giggled, but his passion was already working its magic and her voice trailed away into his eager mouth.

He pulled back for a moment. "Casey, if this only lasts five minutes, I want to spend every second of those five minutes making love to you like I've been waiting to do for almost four years now." He paused. "Only if you want to though. I'm not trying to pressure you into anything-"

She cut him off with her mouth, slipping her shirt off easily, the fire burning in her blue eyes when she pulled back from a kiss that left him breathless. "I love you. For _once_ in your life, just shut up." she instructed amusedly, leaping back up to meet their lips again.

Derek took five seconds to mentally thank Jake for his thoughtful birthday present before pulling his lover closer once more.

* * *

After several long discussions about it, Casey and Derek decided that they would keep the news quiet for a while. Derek wanted to check with the doctors to make sure this was here to stay. He didn't want to get anyone's hopes up. His were already skyrocketing to another dimension as were his girlfriend's; but he didn't think it was fair to do to everyone.

Dr. McCallum, for one, was flabbergasted. He ran multiple tests, both bewildered and elated at the results.

"Derek, never in all of my years of work in the medical field have I ever seen a miracle like this!" he finally said, laughing giddily.

Casey squeezed Derek's arm excitedly, beaming.

Dr. McCallum ran a hand over his face, shaking his head in disbelief. "I honestly don't know how you guys did it. You overcame all the odds. All the statistics, all the studies, all the research. Your spinal cord is in perfect condition. It's as if there was never an accident at all."

* * *

Patricia was less professional about it. When Derek wheeled up to her and kicked at her playfully, she started crying and hugging the both of them. She had become really close to Derek, something that wasn't _exactly_ encouraged in the medical community but it happened all the time.

She got a hold of herself and grinned at the two of them. "I knew it. I knew you two could do it. I knew you guys had something special. I've always been a believer in love is a miracle maker and you guys are a shining example. Miracles do exist."

Casey smiled gratefully at her, leaning her head against Derek's shoulder, her arm linked with his as she sat on a stool next to his chair.

Patricia corrected her throat, going back to professional manner. "Well. Regardless of how awesome this is, the battle isn't done yet. We've been building your muscles up in your back and trying to keep your leg muscles as well toned as possible but they'll still be weak to begin with. I'm assuming you haven't tried walking yet."

Derek shook his head. He had done some leg exercises at home, but it had only been twenty-four hours since the miracle happened. He hadn't wanted to injure himself and he was too afraid of another accident happening.

Casey went to the cafeteria to get a drink while Derek had his session with Patricia.

Patricia dished out her instructions and began setting up for the exercise when she eyed him slyly.

He raised an eyebrow at her when he noticed. "What?"

"If I know you at all… I'd bet after the initial shock of having feeling back in your legs, you and Casey hooked up." she teased.

Derek wouldn't have blushed so red if she hadn't been so accurate. He was completely comfortable with Patricia; she was almost like a cool older cousin or something. He had talked to her a lot over their few months together, and because of his position it was always highly personal. So it was more being caught off guard than embarrassment that caused his cheeks to burn a little more crimson than normal.

He snatched up one of the headrests and hit her with it. She laughed, understanding what the action confirmed.

She pulled him into a side hug and kissed his cheek. "I couldn't be more happy for you, sweetie."

He smiled gratefully at her.

"Now let's see you do fifty!" she demanded and he groaned, smirking at her as he acquiesced.

* * *

It was almost impossible to keep such an incredible thing quiet from his family and best friends, let alone be cautious not to use his lower half unconsciously to do something. But Derek had a plan. He wanted to make a true comeback, in his Triple D way. And he had the perfect idea how to do it.

The final game of the season came and the coach invited Derek to sit with the rest of the team in the box. The rest of the McDonald-Venturis came, along with Emily, and found themselves experiencing the irony. After all, Derek's accident occurred on the FIRST game of the season and, as it coincidentally turned out, against the same team.

This made the energy from Derek's team fire right up. The guy who had attacked Derek had been kicked off the team, but it was just the principle of the thing. They wanted to beat them. Make them pay in the competitive sports type way.

The rest of the team seemed incredibly happy to have Derek suited up in full hockey gear (minus skates) next to them, despite the fact that they knew he wouldn't be playing. The excited energy was present in the entire stadium. With it being the final game, it was to be expected. The team had struggled without their star player, but they were a solid team regardless.

Derek's eyes didn't leave once the game started. Before he had come, he figured seeing the exact stadium and teams and all that would bring back so many unwanted memories that he wouldn't be able to stay. That despite the fact that a miracle had happened, the underlying fear was still threatening to suffocate him. Being paralyzed had taught him so many things about himself and the world around him, but he would never wish it on anyone. Not even the guy who did it to him in the first place.

Thankfully, he didn't see any part of this place that way. He still watched hockey as an avid fan. Especially when it involved his own team.

* * *

After the first period, Casey and Emily came down to visit the boys.

Both chatted animatedly with Derek and Sam, and soon joined by Jake. Without realizing, Casey and Derek's hands intertwined while they were talking and he squeezed hers affectionately before she left.

She cast a loving smile at him over her shoulder as she walked back up the row stairs to their family.

One of his buddies hit him in the arm. "D, since when have you been dating Casey?"

Derek felt the blood drain out of his face. He hadn't meant to be so cutesy and couple-y. Heck, their parents were only a few rows up. But would everyone be grossed out? It was perfectly legal but he could understand why people would get weirded out… hence the reason why their parents were still in the dark.

"Since when HASN'T he been dating Casey?" another one, Mike, reminded him.

"Yeah, I'd say they've been dating since Casey moved in." someone at the end of the row inputted.

"I assumed they were when Casey showed up to school wearing Derek's clothes. That was only about a week after she moved in." Kevin said with a shrug.

"Didn't they get 'locked in' a bathroom together at their party? Who believed that lie for a second…" Isaac teased as the others all laughed in agreement.

Both Sam and Jake were losing it, as Derek sat in bewilderment.

"I probably still have the bruises from when I started dating Casey." Sam added, raising his eyebrows at Derek, as if asking him to deny his reaction to the whole ordeal. Derek chuckled at that one while the others roared with more laughter.

"That was your own fault, Sammyboy. You should've known better." Jake reminded him.

"What about the D-Rock performance? Casey basically did it all for Derek. They were flirting hardcore on stage the entire time."

"OR that time they won that dance competition."

"Or when Casey saved Derek from being pummeled by the Fridge."

"_I thought no one knew about that_." Derek hissed at Sam, who chuckled, shaking his head in amusement and shrugging his shoulders.

The recalling of stories continued, but Derek intervened.

"OKAY. I know it's not like my feelings have been very subtle. I get it. We're obviously into each other."

The others laughed at his expense, knowing Derek did not like being put on the spot about feelings of all things.

Thankfully for him the break ended and the game restarted.

* * *

They were nearing the end, only ten minutes of the game left. It had been an intense and competitive game so far, leaving the scores tied and both teams pushing themselves harder than ever. Sam's goal blocking was superb but they were getting harder and harder to stop.

The coaches both took a timeout to discuss final strategy with the teams.

Derek stayed towards the back, smiling to himself, preparing for his plan to follow through. No one else knew of it and he wasn't sure if he would get in trouble for it, but he felt like it was the best way to show everyone the good news.

His coach was talking in a low voice to his team, despite the fact that the other team was on the other side of the rink. "We need a surprise factor, something that will catch them off guard. Peters, I want you working forward. Lexington, block number seventeen. I worry about him. He's been doing too well the last half of this game…"

Finally they separated and headed back onto the ice. Derek silently strapped up skates, everyone too enraptured in what was going on the ice to notice him. As he expected, Adam took a fall and swept over to tag a different teammate so he could get his wind back. Before Mike got to his feet, Derek dove out in front of him.

"Venturi!" the coach yelled, then stopped, not understanding what was happening. He was thinking his player wasn't listening to his coach but he realized that Derek wasn't here to play. And then he remembered why.

The entire stadium went silent, all the players of both teams stopped moving as Derek skated past them with fierce determination. He couldn't lie; he had missed the ice.

He shot with a perfect arc into the net of the almost motionless goalie. Reflexes caught up with him and he attempted to block it, but his delayed reaction allowed Derek to score the winning goal.

A beat passed before the hundreds of people erupted into the loudest cheering Derek had ever heard. His eardrums popped as he laughed in relief and joy, his team surrounding him and tackling him in a huge hug.

"DER-EK! DER-EK! DER-EK!" the crowd chanted amongst the screaming. It was like that time he almost got kicked out of school and Casey rallied everyone to beg the new principal for him to stay; only about a million times better.

The other team raced over to pat him on the back and congratulate him on his recovery, rather than the game. The result of the game was the last thing on everyone's mind at the moment.

Derek spotted his family rushing down from the stands, all of them crying, even Casey. Because Casey was always crying. He hadn't even told her of his plan but he was so glad it was a surprise for everyone. It left him feeling exhilarated.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Sam asked, ruffling his hair after his helmet was removed and man-hugging him, shortly followed by Jake.

"My present came in handy, didn't it." Jake teased in his ear, winking at him. Derek hooked an arm around his neck to noogie him, but then hugged him in thanks, the grin never leaving his face.

The coach passed Derek the announcer's microphone and everyone finally shut up long enough to hear what he had to say.

"I'm assuming most of you know of what happened here in this stadium a few months ago. I was tackled and ended up fracturing my spine, leaving me paralyzed from the waist down. It was the most traumatic thing to ever happen to me and there were times where I thought I wouldn't get through it. Times where I wanted to give up and say 'screw the world'. But I didn't. I fought through it. Thanks to a wonderful family and some of the most fantastic friends I could ask for." he said, his voice echoing around the large arena.

He winked at Emily in the stands, who smiled gratefully back.

"The doctors told me it was unlikely I would ever get better. Paralysis isn't something that goes away after time. It's permanent. But besides the others that pushed me through, there is one person who is the reason I am STANDING here today. Casey McDonald not only was my biggest supporter through my tough times, but she literally saved my LIFE. She is my miracle worker. The fact that I am walking and back to normal, is classified as an absolute _miracle_ to the health professionals. I know the reason. It's Casey. I am a firm believer in true love conquering all, but I never thought it could do this much."

"I guess what I'm saying is… you'll go through some crazy stuff in this world. But you just need to remember about how blessed you are. Appreciate what you have and who is in your life. You never know how fast this world will change. My life got turned upside down but I was the happiest I had ever been even before I got feeling back in my legs. So hang in there guys, I promise it's worth it when you find your own Casey."

Derek hated how frigging sappy he sounded, but Casey strode across the ice determinedly, somehow not slipping and pulled him into a passionate kiss right in front of the hundreds of people.

The stadium erupted again, plenty of 'Finally!'s heard amongst the craziness.

Derek blindly passed the microphone back to the coach as he wrapped his arms around her, not caring about anything else but her at the moment as they made out in the middle of the rink.

She finally pulled back, eyes glistening like always, and she giggled.

"I think our parents know about us now. You certainly know how to deliver a finale."

Derek grinned, looking past her to see their parents and siblings cheering louder than the rest, bright smiles on their faces, and he knew everything was okay.

Despite all the craziness of the last few months, beating all the odds in every aspect of his life, he felt amazing. But regardless of all of that, he knew what he was truly grateful for. He vowed never to take things for granted again as he hugged Casey to his side, standing proudly.

* * *

**A/N **TA-DA! THE END.

Alright. So explanations? Sure.

I know its cheesy as hell. Seriously. I'm not a complete moron. It's fluffy and corny and just what I was going for. Sometimes you need that cheesiness to help see the message loud and clear. Also, why does Casey cry so much? Sheesh. She's emotional. I see Casey sorta like I am. I'm an emotional person, who cries both in happy times and sad, because we feel with our entire hearts. And when it involves someone we care about, its that much greater of a reaction.

ANYWAYS I deeply considered leaving Derek paralyzed. Honestly. When I started this story, I wrote it planning on not making him remain that way. But once I really got into it, I started to almost teach myself the lesson ? I realized that Derek was learning all of these wonderful things about himself and he was seeing who his real friends were and that he had a future despite what had happened to him. He was moving on, not letting it ruin his life, and doing better despite it all. And I felt like that was a really important lesson, which is why I wrote the story to begin with. But I worried that healing him was taking away from the meaning. So I really hope you all could see that.

Seeing as I sound like a teacher trying to force thoughts and opinions into your head in the above paragraph, I should also say that I hope you ENJOYED reading it and that it was both sad and realistic as well as upbeat and heartfelt. Decent stories have you feeling a rollercoaster of emotions, becoming emotionally invested in the characters and their going-ons. I hope that happened for at least most of you :)

Also, I know there are better Dasey moments that could have been recalled with the hockey boys but I had to choose ones that happened at school or with fellow students at parties and such since a lot of the Dasey moments occur at home, or with just the family or themselves which they wouldnt know about. And since I wrote this as their final year of high school, I had to write out Sally and Truman completely so no mention of Trumans Last Chance episode, the best Dasey episode everrrrrrrrrr.

Flames are always welcomed, and reviews are definitely encouraged whole-heartedly. I seriously love you guys and I know this story finishing was a long time coming, but I hope it was worth all the waiting.

Just a final note: I won't be posting for a while anymore stories. I need to get further than a couple chapters before I start publishing in order to update regularly. And I never want to keep you guys waiting as long as I did last time. My next story I plannnn on writing is Lizzie-centric, and based off of a movie ;) I have really good ideas for it so I'm hoping to get to writing it really soon and then of course posting. But check my profile for updates if you get curious :)

LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU GUYS! peace outttttttttttttttttttttt xo


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